While fast foods look good, taste good and cost little, the health expenses can be great. Even an occasional fast-food meal can bust your diet, relates the American Diabetes Association. You can overload on some nutrients, such as fat and sugar, and miss out on others, such as fiber and certain vitamins and minerals. The high calories and low nutritional value of carbonated drinks are typical of fast-food detriments to your waistline and long-term health.
Oversize Portions Lead to Weight Gain
Too many food calories that you can't expend become body fat, which increases your weight and your chances for illness. A double-patty hamburger, large French fries and a 16-ounce milk shake total 1,572 calories. If you'd like a hot apple pie with that order, add another 404 calories, as per the USDA. This meal, which exceeds suggested servings for meats, starchy vegetables and sugar, uses nearly an entire day's allowance of a 2,000-calorie diet. Eating two more normal meals will increase your calorie intake, fat storage and weight.
High Carbohydrates Increase Blood Triglycerides
Carbs pop up everywhere in fast foods: in soda pop, burger buns, sub sandwich rolls, pancakes, tacos, French fries and milk shakes. Getting too many carbohydrates raises your blood triglyceride level, a condition that can lead to insulin resistance. Combined with weight gain from calorie overload, this nutritional imbalance can raise your risk for type 2 diabetes. At the same time, the low dietary fiber content of many fast foods joins with high calories to increase your risk for colon, gallbladder, breast and prostate cancers.
High Fat and Cholesterol Harm Arteries
Nutritional ratios in many fast foods are also tipped toward large amounts of saturated, trans and polyunsaturated fats and cholesterol. Hamburgers, fried shrimp, fish and chicken, tacos and breakfast sandwiches are at the top of the list of all foods with unhealthy levels of fat and cholesterol. Solid fats, including cholesterol, coat the insides of your arteries to clog and damage them. Solid and liquid fats convey high calories, raising your risk for heart attack, arrhythmia and congestive heart failure.
High Sodium Raises Blood Pressure
The greater your sodium intake, the greater your blood pressure, making you vulnerable to hypertension if you eat fast foods. High-sodium items abound on drive-through menus, including fried shrimp, tacos and submarine sandwiches. According to the Office of the Surgeon General, if you gain weight from a steady diet of fast foods, your chances of developing high blood pressure and heart disease increase.
References
- American Diabetes Association: The Fast Food Challenge
- American Heart Association: How Do I Follow a Healthy Diet?
- USDA: Nutrient Database
- National Institutes of Health: Type 2 Diabetes
- Office of the Surgeon General: Overweight Consequences
- American Institute for Cancer Research: The Facts About Fiber
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