ARTICLE________________________________________________________________

How Carbohydrates Can Affect Your Heart Health

Know the difference between good carbs and bad carbs
Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy. They’re found in almost all of the foods that we eat,
but choosing the right ones can make or break a heart-healthy diet.
Good carbs, bad carbs
“Both good carbs and bad carbs turn into sugar, but their nutritional value and how fast they digest in the
body is what makes them different,” says registered dietitian Kate Patton, MEd, RD, CSSD, LD, of Cleveland
Clinic’s Preventive Cardiology & Rehabilitation Section.
Your body breaks down all carbohydrates into sugar.  The outcome is glucose, and this is what gives your
body energy.
Food with complex, good carbohydrates, such as quinoa and oatmeal, contain a lot of fiber so your body
breaks them down slowly. This keeps you feeling full and stabilizes your blood sugar levels.
Foods with simple, or bad, carbohydrates include table sugar, brown sugar, and processed food that
contains sugar added to improve its taste. Processed food with added sugars includes:
 Sugar-sweetened beverages
 Grain-based desserts
 Fruit-flavored drinks
 Dairy desserts
 Candy
 Ready-to-eat cereals
 Yeast breads
Your body digests these simple carbohydrates very quickly. This causes increased inflammation in the body
and raises your blood sugar levels.
“We tend to consume too much of these simple carbohydrates,” Patton says. “If you’re consuming too much
simple sugar, your arteries become inflamed.”
Stressing the heart
In addition to inflammation, too much sugar in your bloodstream can damage your artery walls,
which leads to added inflammation.
Your arteries carry oxygen-rich blood to your heart. Inflammation is a risk factor for coronary
artery narrowing, which makes it difficult for blood to make it to your heart.
“Having high blood sugar levels increases your risk for heart disease,” Patton says.
The average American consumes about 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day. The American Heart
Association (AHA) recommends that women limit consumption of added sugar to six
teaspoons every day. Men should limit added sugar to nine teaspoons a day, the AHA says.
Recent research shows that people who consumed up to 20 percent of their daily calories from
simple sugars increased their risk from dying of heart disease by 38 percent.
Sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest source of added sugars in the American diet, the AHA
says. The AHA recommends limiting these drinks to 36 ounces or 450 calories a week.
A can of regular soda packs about 35 grams of added sugars. That is equal to nearly nine
teaspoons of sugar.One simple way to get rid of added sugars in your diet is to reduce or
eliminate soda, fruit drinks, sports and energy drinks, enhanced waters, sweetened teas and
sugary coffee drinks.

Retrieved from: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-carbohydrates-can-affect-

your-heart-health/
REACTION PAPER_____________________________________________________
Christine Joy Molina
One of the many things that our human body need is energy. Through this energy, our body
is able to function and power up certain processes that our body needs to maintain homeostasis.
From the basic function of life, which are cells, to our tissues, down to our organs, all of these parts
work and play their role through the energy we take from the food we eat. Looking at a chemical
level, carbohydrates contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, which are organic compounds that are
essentially needed to maintain life. What if there is too much or lesser intake of carbohydrates?
What may be the result of this?

Carbohydrates are essential in our diet for it is the main source of energy needed by our
body. It helps in improving our moods, promotes weight loss, and reduces bad cholesterol from
accumulating in our body. Plant-based or naturally made whole carbohydrates such as fruits,
vegetables, and grains are highly nutritious and can enhance our body’s capability to function.
However, consuming excess carbohydrates could lead to harmful effects – from short-term to
long-term chronic diseases.

As I was browsing and reading through some articles about carbohydrates and how it could
affect our body’s internal balance, all I could think of was that I had a misconception about
carbohydrates. All I thought that consuming more carbohydrates would mean more energy and
more energy would mean that I am healthy. But it turns out that, either too much intake or lesser
intake of carbohydrates would bring negative effect in our body. According to the article that I
have read, consuming refined carbohydrates in excessive amounts could bring high risk of
negative effects on our body. These refined sugars or factory-made carbohydrates digest easily
since most of the nutrients and fibers were taken off, and consuming lots of this would mean more
storage of carbohydrates which is a big ‘no’ since it could cause internal imbalance and would
result to different body complications. One of these factory-made carbohydrates’ effects is
resulting to different cardiovascular diseases. Excess carbohydrates mean excess sugar. Too much
sugar in our bloodstream can damage our heart’s artery walls which can lead to its inflammation.
Inflammation and narrowing of these bloodstreams would make it hard for our oxygen-rich blood
to pass through and circulate throughout the body. However, consuming good carbohydrates such
as vegetables and grains wouldn’t cause any damages to our health, instead, these carbohydrates
regulates oxygen flow and cleans impurities throughout our body.

Gaining a little knowledge and correcting the misconceptions I had about carbohydrates
would surely help me in the future. With this, I’ll be able to check and control what I eat and I
could even advice other people to do the same thing. Eating more or less of something would
always cause complications, but controlling and monitoring what we eat is one of the best ways to
a healthier ‘you’.