Fatty foods can taste great and fill you up today, but frequent indulgence can cause you health problems down the road. Dietary fats carry greater calories than nutrients such as vitamins. You may not be able to expend these calories through activity, creating weight gain and its attendant ill effects. Saturated and trans fats build up in your arteries over the long term, threatening your cardiovascular health as well. Take steps now to avoid chronic diseases caused by eating too many fatty foods.
Atherosclerosis
Fried foods, commercial baked goods, and hamburgers and other fatty meats that you eat contribute fatty substances to your diet. Saturated fat, unsaturated fat, and trans fatty acids and cholesterol enter your bloodstream and may be left behind in the walls of your arteries as sticky plaque. When plaque builds, the arterial space narrows. Blockages can occur, blood clots can form and cardiovascular efficiency is compromised. This can cause cramping and pain when your cells don't get enough blood to supply needed nutrients. This is why the American Heart Association advises limiting your fat intake.
Heart Disease
Atherosclerosis brought on by a fatty diet is a form of heart disease that builds slowly and can result in the sudden and potentially fatal complications of heart attack or stroke. Blood clotting can also prevent blood flow to the kidneys and other organs, causing functional failure and medical emergencies. While other factors such as smoking and overweight conditions may also promote the development of heart disease, atherosclerosis is the leading factor and also the leading cause of death in America, according to The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library.
Weight Gain
Eating a lot of fatty, fried, snack and fast foods is more likely to encourage weight gain than a diet of whole grains, fruits and vegetables. For instance, a common fast-food meal can take up half of your daily calorie allowance in an average 2,000-calorie limit. The Office of the Surgeon General reports that carrying too many pounds increases your cardiovascular risk and may cause breathing problems, arthritis and some types of cancer.
Type 2 Diabetes
Overweight conditions are also major risk factors for type 2 diabetes. This may be because the nutritional imbalance of a diet that promotes weight gain causes insulin resistance, but the exact mechanism for diabetes development is unknown. The correlation between weight gain and diabetes is proven, however, with 11 to 18 pounds above a normal weight doubling your risk for type 2 diabetes, as the Office of the Surgeon General relates.
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