Fast-food restaurants are adding healthy choices, such as oatmeal and fruit snacks, but most entrees and sides utilize unhealthy ingredients or cooking methods. The high calories from large ratios of fat and carbohydrates can make you gain disproportionate weight, while nutrients such as saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium affect your cardiovascular health. Large serving portions of nutritionally imbalanced fast foods reduce your intake of beneficial nutrients and dietary fiber, and raise your risk for serious weight and health problems.
Overweight Conditions
Gaining weight can reduce your energy and fitness levels, slowing you down and diminishing your quality of life. A 2005 scientific study tracked a 10-lb. weight gain over 15 years in adolescents who ate fast foods more than twice a week. Left unaddressed, overweight conditions can lead to obesity, which is considered a body mass index of 30 and higher. These consequences of weight gain are primary risk factors for high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, arthritis, incontinence, higher surgical risks, lower reproductive fertility and depression.
Heart Disease
Some health issues, such as atherosclerosis, or arteries clogged by dietary fats, develop slowly over time. Others, such as hypertension, or high blood pressure, can arise more quickly. Foods including hamburgers, fried fish and chicken, breakfast sandwiches, submarine sandwiches and tacos are high in saturated fat, trans fat and/or cholesterol, which promote atherosclerosis, and in sodium, which is directly linked to elevated blood pressure levels. According to the U.S.Department of Agriculture, all of these foods also carry large calorie loads, which can increase your weight.
Diabetes
The exact cause of type 2 diabetes is unknown, but a fast food diet can cause two conditional risk factors for the disease. Consuming large amounts of carbohydrates in milk shakes, submarine sandwich rolls, fried food and carbonated beverages can raise your blood triglycerides to unhealthy levels. High triglyceride and overweight conditions are both associated with increased incidence of type 2 diabetes.
Cancer
Weight gain and nutritional issues such as low fiber intake are associated with some types of cancer, including colon, kidney, gallbladder, uterine, prostate and breast cancers. The Office of the Surgeon General relates that women who gain 20 pounds as adults double their risk for postmenopausal breast cancer. The proliferation of breads made with refined flour and the low fiber content of many other fast foods -- along with high calorie counts -- make cancer a greater threat to those who eat frequently at the drive-through.
References
- The Lancet: Fast Foods Associated With Weight Gain, Insulin Resistance; Mark Pereira, et al.; 2005
- USDA: Nutrient Database
- National Institutes of Health: Type 2 Diabetes; January 2011
- Office of the Surgeon General: Overweight Consequences; January 2007
- American Institute for Cancer Research: The Facts About Fiber; November 2009
