Do sugary carbs hurt your heart in 4 weeks?
Effects of low- and high-glycemic index/glycemic load diets on coronary heart disease risk factors in overweight/obese men.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
HDL cholesterol dropped significantly on the high-GI diet, even as LDL and total cholesterol also fell.
Typically, diets that lower LDL (like low-fat or high-fiber) preserve or raise HDL. Here, both went down—defying conventional lipid science.
Practical Takeaways
If you're eating high-GI foods, check if they’re loaded with seed oils (soybean, corn, sunflower)—those might be lowering your HDL, not the sugar.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
HDL cholesterol dropped significantly on the high-GI diet, even as LDL and total cholesterol also fell.
Typically, diets that lower LDL (like low-fat or high-fiber) preserve or raise HDL. Here, both went down—defying conventional lipid science.
Practical Takeaways
If you're eating high-GI foods, check if they’re loaded with seed oils (soybean, corn, sunflower)—those might be lowering your HDL, not the sugar.
Publication
Journal
Metabolism: clinical and experimental
Year
2009
Authors
J. Shikany, Radhika P. Phadke, D. Redden, B. Gower
Related Content
Claims (10)
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 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.
Eating foods with different sugar impacts doesn't seem to reliably change heart disease risk markers in overweight men after just four weeks—so short-term diet changes might not be enough to make a difference.
If overweight men eat mostly high-sugar, high-refined-carb foods for four weeks, they might lose a little more fat and gain a little more muscle than if they ate low-sugar, whole-food carbs—but it’s so small that it might not actually matter in real life.
Eating either high-sugar or low-sugar carbs for four weeks doesn’t reliably change insulin response, swelling, or blood clotting in overweight or obese men—even though the types of carbs were very different.