(June 12) -- Popular diets have long pushed the benefits of lowering your carbohydrate intake to lose weight, and a new study suggested that eating a high-carb diet -- with foods like cornflakes and white bread -- could also raise your risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Researchers at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Israel gave 56 overweight but otherwise healthy men and women foods with different places on the glycemic index. High-glycemic foods include cornflakes, white bread and instant potatoes, while lower-glycemic foods are things like oatmeal, most fruits and vegetables, and nuts.

The researchers measured the functioning of a layer of cells that line the inside of blood vessels. If that function, called the endothelial function, is poor, it's thought to increase the risk of heart disease. Blood sugar levels were also measured. The study concluded that high-glycemic meals impaired the endothelial function.

"We do urge consumers to have low-glycemic index carbohydrates instead of high-glycemic carbohydrates for better health and less potential hazards for the vascular endothelial function," said Dr. Michael Shechter, senior cardiologist at The Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University in Israel. "High-glycemic index carbs are dangerous since they reduce or inhibit endothelial function ... potentially leading to heart disease," he said.

The study is published in the June 16 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Do you have a link for this article? I want to save it.

The Acute Effect of Various Glycemic Index Dietary Carbohydrates on Endothelial Function in Nondiabetic Overweight and Obese Subjects -- Lavi et al. 53 (24): 2283 -- Journal of the American College of Cardiology

Thanks!

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