Thanks to high-calorie and unhealthy ingredients and super portion sizes, fast foods contribute to obesity and disease. While fast-food burgers and fries, fried chicken and biscuits and Mexican dishes don't cause illness or weight gain if you eat them once, over time they can influence your eating habits. Frequent indulgence can make you gain weight, and carrying extra pounds raises your risk for many short-term and chronic health problems.
Weight-Related Illnesses
Just being overweight can make you make you more sedentary, which threatens your heart health. Many fast-food meals total 1,000 calories or more --- 50 percent of an average diet's daily calories in one meal. Habitually consuming more calories than you expend can cause you to become overweight or obese. These conditions are associated with greater incidence of incontinence, arthritis, depression and gall bladder disease, in addition to heart disease.
Respiratory Illnesses
Obesity, defined by a body mass index of 30 or higher, places weight strain on the respiratory system. According to the Office of the Surgeon General, obese persons are more likely to develop asthma and sleep apnea, two types of breathing disorders, than the general population.
Cardiovascular Illnesses
In addition to high calories, many fast food entrees and side dishes contain large amounts of fat, cholesterol and sodium, or salt. Consuming too much salt raises your blood pressure, causing hypertension, which can lead to heart disease and kidney failure. Getting too much fat and cholesterol can cause plaque build-up in your arteries, or atherosclerosis. Blood clots, aneurysms, strokes and heart attacks can occur as a result. These symptoms of heart disease can be fatal, and they represent the number-one cause of death in America.
Diabetes
Drinking lots of sugary soda pop or milk shakes, or eating sweet desserts at the drive-thru, won't cause diabetes. The high calories, however, can make you gain weight. The Office of the Surgeon General reports that a gain of just 11 to 18 pounds doubles your normal risk for type 2 diabetes, a serious blood sugar disorder. This chronic disease requires daily medication and monitoring and can have serious complications that may result in limb amputation or organ failure.
