Carbohydrates and death from inflammatory disease

As the authors of research just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition state:

"Several studies suggest that carbohydrate nutrition is related to oxidative stress and inflammatory markers."

The proceeded to examine whether dietary glycemic index (GI), dietary fiber, and carbohydrate-containing food groups were associated with death due to non-cardiovascular, non-cancer inflammatory disease in 1490 postmenopausal women and 1245 men. What did their data show?

"Over a 13-y period, 84 women and 86 men died of inflammatory diseases. Women in the highest GI tertile had a 2.9-fold increased risk of inflammatory death...Increasing intakes of foods high in refined sugars or refined starches and decreasing intakes of bread and cereals or vegetables other than potatoes also independently predicted a greater risk. In men, only an increased consumption of fruit fiber and fruit conferred an independent decrease in risk of inflammatory death."

In other words, for postmenopausal women the high glycemic index diet almost tripled the risk of death from inflammatory disease.