High-carbohydrate diets lower HDL cholesterol and raise triglycerides, which greatly increases your risk of heart disease.- Carbohydrates raise insulin, which makes you fat and increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
- A high intake of carbohydrates and sweetened beverages is associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer.
- Carbohydrates eaten in excess raise levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, which increases risk of heart attacks and strokes.
- Eating too many carbohydrates makes LDL cholesterol smaller and denser, which in turn raises risk of heart and artery disease.
- Eating a lot of starches and sugars raises levels of blood fats following a meal—a condition called postprandial lipemia—which is another risk factor for heart disease.
- Eating a lot of starches and sugars can increase the likelihood of a yeast overgrowth, a toxic bowel, and impaired ability of the liver to remove toxic materials from the body, all of which increase risk of disease.
- Pregnant women who eat diets high in carbohydrates form smaller placentas. This has ominous implications. The formation of the placenta dictates how well the mother will be able to transfer nutrients to the fetus. Further studies are needed to uncover exactly what the long-term effects of diets high in carbohydrates are on the health of newborns.
- A diet high in grains like wheat will contain phytates that reduce the absorption of valuable nutrients like calcium and zinc. Such a diet will also increase exposure to highly allergenic compounds such as gluten, found in wheat, rye, and barley.
- Excessive intake of carbohydrates, especially sugar, will weaken immune function. Too many carbohydrates will also increase the damage that stress can do to the body, a fact widely appreciated in critical care medicine.
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