If you're overweight or obese, eating a lot of sugary or starchy foods might raise your chance of heart disease by almost half—but if you're a normal weight, those foods don’t seem to make a difference. Your weight changes how those foods affect your heart.

People who are overweight or obese get a much bigger risk of heart disease from eating lots of sugary, starchy foods than people who are a normal weight — like 49% more risk vs. just 3% more.

Eating a lot of foods that spike your blood sugar quickly may raise your chance of getting heart disease—even if you’re otherwise healthy or don’t smoke or have high blood pressure.

People who eat a lot of sugary or starchy foods and have a higher body weight are more likely to develop heart disease than people with the same diet but lower body weight — for every extra 50 grams of sugar and starch per day, their risk goes up by 22%. But if you’re lighter, that same diet doesn’t seem to raise your risk much.

Eating foods that spike your blood sugar quickly may double your chance of getting heart disease, even if you don’t have other risk factors like high blood pressure or smoking.

Eating foods that spike your blood sugar quickly—like white bread or sugary snacks—might raise your chances of getting heart disease. The more of these foods you eat, the higher your risk seems to be.