High-carb shakes can be detrimental to heart

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The next you gulp that favourite high-carb shake of yours, think twice. A new study has found that a high carbohydrate shake can hamper the heart function and have a detrimental effect on it.

The research has found that consuming high-carb shakes can reduce the ANP level to 25 percent. ANP is a hormone that reduces blood pressure and helps the body get rid of excess salt.

Researchers studied 33 individuals who were given an acute carbohydrate load in the form of a shake. 

They studied their blood levels for six hours looking for things like whether this acute metabolic challenge could alter the heart's production of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP). 

Before the participants began the study, they were normalised on a standard diet for a couple of days to remove any background dietary variability. 

If a high dietary carbohydrate load suppresses circulating ANP concentrations, this would be a disadvantage to obese individuals who have lower ANP levels to begin with.

"The carbohydrate load had a significant and notable effect on circulating ANP levels. Experimental studies suggest that it's not good to make less ANP and "Carb loading" may not be ideal for the body," said senior author Thomas Wang from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the US.

When you take in a high-carb shake a lot of things happen, including increases in glucose and insulin. 

"However, the increase in glucose appears to be the main thing driving the drop in ANP levels," Wang explained.

First author Pankaj Arora from University of Alabama at Birmingham helped to work out the novel chemical pathways that mediated the effect of glucose on heart cells.

(With IANS inputs)