The Study
A prospective study of dietary glycemic load, carbohydrate intake, and risk of coronary heart disease in US women.
This study found that women who ate a lot of foods that spike blood sugar (like white bread and sugary snacks) were more likely to get heart problems later — but it doesn’t prove those foods caused the problems, because other things (like how much they exercised or what else they ate) might have played a role.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
This study looked at what women ate and saw that eating lots of foods that spike blood sugar quickly—like white bread and sugary snacks—was linked to more heart problems.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 559 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes—nearly doubling the risk is a big deal for public health, especially since it happened even after accounting for smoking, weight, and other factors.
- 2Women who ate the most high-glycemic foods had almost twice the risk of heart disease compared to those who ate the least (1.98x higher risk).
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The American journal of clinical nutrition
Year
2000
Authors
Simin Liu, W. Willett, M. Stampfer, F. Hu, M. Franz, Laura K Sampson, C. Hennekens, J. Manson
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 a lot of sugary and refined carbs like white bread and soda may raise a woman’s chance of getting heart disease by almost double, even if she doesn’t have other common risk factors like high blood pressure or smoking.
For middle-aged women in the US, how quickly carbs raise blood sugar (glycemic index) might be a better clue about heart disease risk than just whether the carbs are 'simple' or 'complex'.
Women in their 40s to 60s who eat a lot of foods that spike blood sugar quickly—like white bread, sugary snacks, and refined carbs—are more likely to develop heart disease than those who eat fewer of these foods, with the biggest eaters having almost twice the risk.
For middle-aged women in the US, how sugary or starchy your food is overall (glycemic load) matters more for heart disease risk than just how much carbs you eat.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.