Scientists from the Vanderbilt University and University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the US studied 33 individuals who were given an acute carbohydrate load in the form of a 264-kilo-calorie shake.
They studied the subjects' blood levels for six hours looking for a number of things, chief among them whether this acute metabolic challenge could alter the heart's production of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP).
ANP is a hormone that helps the body get rid of excess salt and reduces blood pressure.
Before the participants began the study, they were normalised on a standard diet for a couple of days to remove any background dietary variability.
Researchers observed that drinking the high-carb shake led to a 25 per cent reduction in ANP in participants over the course of several hours.
"The carbohydrate load had a significant and notable effect on circulating ANP levels. Experimental studies suggest that it is not good to make less ANP," said Thomas Wang from Vanderbilt University.
"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," said Wang.
Pankaj Arora from UAB helped to work out the novel chemical pathways that mediated the effect of glucose on heart cells.
This novel mechanism involved a molecule known as miR-425, which the research group has previously described as an inhibitor of ANP production. The glucose causes the cells to make more miR-425, and that, in turn, causes a reduction in ANP, researchers said.