High-Carb Diets Boost Women’s Heart Risk

According to the results of a new study, Dutch researchers have found that women who ate a diet high in rapidly-absorbed carbohydrates — nutrition experts describe these carbohydrates as having a “high glycemic index” — were at increased risk of getting cardiovascular disease, especially if they were overweight.

The study was expected to be published in the July 3 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The term “high glycemic index” refers to the quality of the carbohydrates and how fast they are absorbed. Because foods with a high glycemic index are absorbed quickly, insulin levels don’t stay as stable, which isn’t ideal for health.

Researcher, Joline Beulens of the University Medical Center Utrecht has been quoted saying:

“However, our results showed that women consuming the highest glycemic load diets had an about 1.5 times higher risk of cardiovascular disease than those consuming the lowest glycemic load diets. Looking only among overweight women, we found that overweight women consuming the highest glycemic load diets had an about 1.8 times higher risk than overweight women consuming the lowest glycemic load diets.”

Among high glycemic index carbs include white bread, cookies and sugary drinks.

Beulens said:

The study shows that it is important to choose the right carbohydrate product in your diet. For example, choose whole grain bread instead of white or whole meal. Choose porridge or muesli instead of cornflakes.

She also noted that evidence is mounting that a diet high in refined carbohydrates is not healthy, with other studies recently coming to the same conclusion.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr. Frank B. Hu, a researcher at Harvard School of Public Health, called for a change in thinking, pointing out that the old idea that reducing saturated fat intake can help heart health is too simplistic. He wrote that reducing dietary glycemic load “should be made a top public health concern.” Source

There’s more on the glycemic index at Oregon State University.

Remarkably the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is the mirror opposite of the West on questions of women’s weight. To men there, fat is sexy. And in that patriarchal society, many Mauritanian women do everything possible — and have everything possible done to them — to put on pounds.

Howvever, Mauritania’s government is out to change that. In recent years, television commercials and official pronouncements have promoted a new message: being fat leads to diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure and other woes.

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Estrogen therapy may lessen artery buildup for women in their 50s

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