This is how poor quality carbohydrate diet can lead to heart attack

Source: ETIMES / Pic: Pixabay / Author: ETIMES

01/4 Poor carbohydrate diet and heart attack

When it comes to a balanced diet plan, an adequate amount of carbohydrates, fats, and sugar is advised to keep diseases at bay. While we all are striving to find a balance, a recent study has pointed out that consuming a diet high in poor quality carbohydrates can have dangerous results. From a higher risk of heart attacks to strokes, and even death, poor quality of carbohydrate causes a lot of irrecoverable damage.

02/4​ The study

A total of 137,851 people aged 35 to 70 years old were followed for a median of 9.5 years through the Population Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study run by the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences. The research team used food questionnaires to measure the long-term dietary intake of participants and estimate the glycemic index (the ranking of food based on their effect on blood sugar levels) and glycemic load (the amount of carbohydrates in food times its glycemic index) of diets. There were 8,780 deaths and 8,252 major cardiovascular events recorded among the participants during the follow-up period.

03/4​ The findings

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the global study focused on people living in five continents and concluded that a diet high in poor quality carbohydrates leads to a higher risk of heart attacks, strokes, and death. The higher risks of a diet high in poor quality carbohydrates, called a high glycemic diet, were similar to whether people had previous cardiovascular disease or not.

04/4 ​Verdict

Someone has rightly said, you are what you eat. So, next time when you serve yourself a meal, do keep a check on its quality and quantity too.