Diet induces changes in plasma lipid profiles, and the plasma lipid profiles vary among different genetic backgrounds.The aim of this study was to investigate how a high-carbohydrate (high-CHO) diet interacts with hepatic lipase G-250A promoter polymorphism to affect the ratios of plasma lipids and apolipoproteins (apo) in a young Chinese population.Experiments were conducted on 56 university students. A stabilization diet was given for 7 days and a high-CHO diet was followed for 6 days. The diets used in this study were described by Song et al. and the following parameters were evaluated: total plasma triglyceride (TG), total plasma cholesterol (TC), plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), apoB100 and apoAI. The plasma lipids and apoB100/apoAI ratios were also calculated and hepatic lipase G-250A polymorphism was analyzed.At baseline, no significant difference was detected for subjects with different genotypes and genders. All the parameters showed significant differences before and after the high-CHO diet, and these differences are gender-specific: after the high-CHO diet, the TG/HDL-C ratios significantly increased in females (GG genotype: P = 0.004; A carriers: P = 0.005). The TC/HDL-C ratios significantly decreased in GG genotype males (P = 0.007), A carrier males (P < 0.0001) and A carrier females (P = 0.016) and the LDL-C/HDL-C ratios significantly decreased in the GG genotype males (P = 0.011), A carrier males (P < 0.0001) and A carrier females (P = 0.001). However, comparing the apoB100/apoAI ratio before and after the high-CHO diet, a significant difference only existed in male A carriers (P = 0.009).The results of this study show that the high-CHO diet induces the positive effects on the lipid ratios in general, only except the TG/HDL-C ratio in females. Noticeably, the decreased apoB100/apoAI ratio is associated with the A allele of hepatic lipase G-250A polymorphism only in young Chinese males.