Junk foods such as candy and other sweets, fried snacks, soda pop and some fast-food items all contribute to your cardiovascular risk by upsetting the nutritional balance in your diet. When you get more fat and sugar than fiber, vitamins and minerals, you can develop weight and arterial problems. Greater sodium input from salty foods than potassium from fruits and vegetables can make your blood pressure too high. These conditions increase your risk for potentially fatal heart attack, stroke and related complications.
Weight Gain
The fat and sugar in chocolate, milk shakes, cookies and cakes create a higher ratio of calories to beneficial nutrients than healthy diets can regularly accommodate. The sugar in sodas and the fat in fried foods may cause you to exceed the number of calories that your body uses. If you eat too much of these junk foods, you'll gain weight. Becoming overweight increases your likelihood of developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, all of which increase stroke and heart attack risk.
Clogged Arteries
Weight, blood pressure and cholesterol problems also raise your chances of experiencing arterial damage and clogged arteries. As the saturated fat in junk-food sweets and fast-food meats deposits residue in your blood vessels, bleeding, blood clots and obstructions to blood flow can follow. Arteries with blood clots and partial plaque obstructions have the potential to trigger heart attacks or strokes at any time.
High Blood Pressure
The greater the sodium proportion in your diet, the lower your potassium intake and the higher your blood pressure are likely to be. Salty junk foods such as pretzels, potato chips, pork rinds and many fast foods promote this recipe for cardiovascular trouble. Eating a lot of junk foods leaves less room on your menus for the fruits and vegetables that provide potassium, a mineral that blunts the rise in blood pressure that sodium consumption causes. High blood pressure damages arteries, setting the stage for artery blockages that lead to strokes and heart attacks.
Your Risk of Stroke and Heart Attack
A diet of junk food can shorten or end your life, especially when combined with other detriments to cardiovascular health, such as inactivity and smoking. Heart attack is one of the medical conditions grouped under heart disease, the leading cause of all deaths, and stroke is the third most common cause of death. Diet-related arterial blockages to the heart and brain could make your junk food habit a fatal one.
References
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010
- Office of the Surgeon General: Overweight Consequences; January 2007
- National Heart Lung and Blood Institute; High Blood Pressure; April 2011
- Merck Manual Home Health Handbook; Atherosclerosis; January 2008
- NIH Research Matters; Sodium-Potassium Ratio Linked to Cardiovascular Disease Risk; January 2009
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Leading Causes of Death; December 2009
