Clogged Arteries
Fast foods create a much higher risk of heart disease because of the high level of saturated or trans fats found in much of the food. Those fats can clog the arteries and, over time, contribute to high cholesterol levels. There has been particular concern in recent years about young people being overweight and obese, and fast food is considered a primary culprit.
Trans Fats
Trans fats are found in many fast foods, including french fries, fried chicken, fried fish sandwiches, biscuits, and fried apple and other pie desserts. The fats are also found in doughnuts, pizza dough, cookies, crackers, and stick margarines and shortenings. These processed fats are made from liquid oil or hydrogenated vegetable oil to make a stiffer fat. Trans fats actually cause a higher risk for heart disease than saturated fats found in butter, cheese and beef. Saturated fats will raise total cholesterol levels, but trans fats will raise total cholesterol levels and at the same time deplete good HDL cholesterol, according to Mary Beth Sodus, a registered dietitian at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Good cholesterol normally takes harmful cholesterol from the arteries to the liver for disposal.
Abdominal Fat
Trans fats triple the risk of heart disease in women, according to Harvard School of Public Health researchers published in the Journal of the American Heart Association in 2007. In a lab study, monkeys that ate a diet high in trans fats over a period of six years gained 7.2 percent of their body weight compared with 1.8 percent that ate a diet high in unsaturated fat. The trans-fat fed monkeys also ended up carrying 30 percent more abdominal fat, a key risk factor for heart disease and diabetes. The study at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was reported to the American Diabetes Association in Washington, D.C., in 2006.
Healthier
The good news is that many fast-food restaurants are removing trans fats from their foods. Food manufacturers are also labeling the trans-fats on their packaged goods. Healthier dieters still watch out for saturated fats that can lead to high total cholesterol levels and heart disease. They are substituting salads or baked potatoes for fries and going easy on sandwich toppings, sticking with lettuce, tomato and onion or other veggies.
