Journal of the American Heart Association — Zhang S, et al. | April 29, 2019

In this prospective cohort study that included 13,385 participants (age: 54.2 ± 5.8 years) from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, researchers assessed the risk of incident atrial fibrillation (AF) in relation to the intake of carbohydrates via multivariable Cox hazard regression models. These participants had completed a dietary questionnaire at baseline (1987–1989), and were followed-up for a median of 22.4 years; during this time, 1,808 (13.5%) participants reported AF. After adjustment for traditional AF risk factors and other diets factors, 0.82 was documented as the hazard ratio for incident AF related to a 1-SD (9.4%) increase in carbohydrate consumption as a percentage of energy intake. The investigators did not identify any link between the type of protein or fat used to substitute the carbohydrate and risk of incident AF. Overall, however, there was a link between adherence to a low-carbohydrate diet and increased risk of incident AF, which held true irrespective of the type of protein or fat used to replace the carbohydrate.

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