If you are a Type 2 diabetic, fast food may have played a part in your acquiring the disease. The Office of the Surgeon General notes that gaining 11 pounds or more from a poor diet of fatty and sweetened foods doubles your chance of getting Type 2 diabetes. According to the USDA Nutrient Database, foods with the highest fat and calorie levels include cheeseburgers, subs and breakfast sandwiches, tacos and french fries. These and other drive-through menu offerings may also be full of detrimental salt and cholesterol. Diabetics especially feel the health effects from high carbohydrates in fast food buns, breading, regular soft drinks and sweet desserts.
Blood Sugar Problems
Diabetics manage their conditions by keeping blood sugar levels as consistent as possible, the American Diabetes Association, or ADA, relates. Eating too many carbs at once can send your blood glucose concentration beyond the safe parameters outlined by your doctor. This state, called hyperglycemia, can escalate to potentially fatal diabetic coma, or ketoacidosis.
Tracking and limiting the amount of carbs you eat each day helps to stabilize your blood sugar. The hidden sugar in dishes such as French toast, cole slaw and even cheeseburgers, according to the USDA, can take diabetics who count carbohydrates by surprise. Frequent indulgence in this poor diet makes you more vulnerable to these dangerous diabetic health effects.
Weight Gain
Eating more calories than you expend, whether from the fat, starches or sugars in a poor diet, will make you gain weight. Because diabetics must limit physical activity during episodes of high blood sugar, you may be more likely to gain weight or have trouble shedding it than nondiabetics.
The Office of the Surgeon General notes that becoming overweight or obese from high-calorie fast foods makes anyone more susceptible to ill health effects on the cardiovascular, respiratory and reproductive systems. Diabetics, who already tend toward cardiovascular problems, have an even greater risk than the general public of developing high blood pressure, peripheral artery disease and strokes, according to the ADA.
Chronic Disease
Sodium can elevate already high blood pressure, while cholesterol deposits can clog narrowing blood vessels. The excessive sodium and cholesterol content of fast foods, therefore, places diabetics in greater-than-normal danger of developing heart disease and heart attacks.
The ADA points out that cardiovascular conditions also increase diabetics' risks for vision problems and kidney disease. Additionally, being overweight or obese stemming from a poor diet increases your risk for chronic asthma, arthritis and cancer at the same rate as the nondiabetic population. Health effects from these complications may include respiratory failure, bone fractures, pain and death.
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