The Study
Glycemic index, glycemic load, and risk of coronary heart disease: a pan-European cohort study.
This study found that people who ate more sugary or starchy foods tended to have more heart problems later, but it didn’t prove the food caused the problems — maybe those people also exercised less or smoked. So we can say the food is linked to heart issues, but not that it makes them happen.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
This study looked at what people ate and saw if it made them more likely to have heart problems later.
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 552 / 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 — even small daily increases in sugary carbs (like one extra slice of white bread or soda) were linked to measurable increases in heart disease risk, especially in overweight people.
- 2People who ate more high-glycemic carbs had 18% more heart disease risk per 50g/day increase.
- 3Those with higher BMI had 22% higher risk per 50g/day.
- 4Eating more sugar or total carbs also raised risk by 9–11% per 50g/day.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The American journal of clinical nutrition
Year
2020
Authors
S. Sieri, C. Agnoli, S. Grioni, E. Weiderpass, A. Mattiello, I. Sluijs, María-José Sánchez, M. U. Jakobsen, M. Sweeting, Y. T. van der Schouw, L. Nilsson, P. Wennberg, V. Katzke, T. Kühn, K. Overvad, T. Tong, M. Conchi, J. Quirós, J. M. García-Torrecillas, O. Mokoroa, Jesús-Humberto Gómez, A. Tjønneland, Emiliy Sonestedt, A. Trichopoulou, A. Karakatsani, Elissavet Valanou, J. Boer, W. Verschuren, M. Boutron‐Ruault, G. Fagherazzi, A. Madika, M. Bergmann, M. Schulze, P. Ferrari, H. Freisling, H. Lennon, C. Sacerdote, G. Masala, R. Tumino, E. Riboli, N. Wareham, J. Danesh, N. Forouhi, A. Butterworth, V. Krogh
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 more carbs each day might raise your risk of heart disease — for every extra 50 grams of carbs (about the amount in a large potato or a big slice of bread), your risk goes up by 11%, even if those carbs don’t spike your blood sugar much.
Eating more sugar—like 50 grams extra a day—seems to go hand in hand with a higher chance of getting heart disease, which might mean sugary foods are part of why some diets lead to heart problems.
Eating foods that spike your blood sugar quickly might slightly raise your risk of heart disease, but only if you look at the numbers in a certain way—when you group people into categories, the link disappears.
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.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.