For most people living in urban areas and metro cities, fast food has more or less become a part of the daily diet. Fast food not only tingles our tastebuds, it’s an inexpensive way to quell hunger pangs. Since cooking at home needs a bit of planning and prep, lack of time is often a common reason to indulge in fast food. But here’s the issue, regular consumption of fast food has a cascading effect on health and it does not help that junk food is highly addictive in nature. Do you know there are crazy side effects of eating fast food regularly. In this post, we tell you about 10 Side Effects you probably didn’t know about fast food.
1. It Effects Digestive System: Most food items at your favorite fast food joint has high number of empty calories with zero nutritional value. When your digestive system breaks down the food, the carbs are converted into the bloodstream as sugar which in turn triggers insulin spikes. Eating junk food on a daily basis can lead to insulin resistance and push you to being a pre-diabetic and from there, the journey to being a diabetic is very quick. Frequent consumption of such high amounts of carbs can spike up your in your blood sugar levels which can cause insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and rapid weight gain.
2. Too much Sugar Content: Did you know that most fast-food meals have hidden sugar content in them, and both of them in high quantities is harmful for health and heart.
3. Transfat is the Reason Behind That Belly Fat: Transfat is one ingredient health experts around the world ask us to stay away from. Consuming foods that contain trans fat can increase your bad cholesterol and reduce your good cholesterol, thereby increasing your chance of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Transfat is banned in many countries due to its harmful effects, and people who are trying to lose weight should absolutely know that transfat mobilizes fat from other areas of the body towards the belly area. Transfat is commonly found in French fries, pastries, pizza, crackers, cookies, biscuits, and baked foods, not to mention in fast food.
4. Beware of High Sodium Content: Fast food may not taste salty but mind you, it’s may be full of sodium. According to a survey, people underestimate the amount of sodium in junk food. The fast food meal has a combination of sugar, fat and lots of sodium (salt) and is the reason why fast food tastes a lot better than home-cooked food. High sodium content will cause water retention, make you feel heavy, puffy, and bloated. A diet that contains too much sodium is also completely not advisable for people with night blood pressure. Sodium can increase blood pressure and stress on heart and cardiovascular system.
5. Effects respiratory system: We have always underlined that regular consumption of fast food can lead to obesity and lifestyle-related diseases. Obesity can cause respiratory problems like asthma and shortness of breath. One would find it difficult to breathe, climb stairs, and to even walk with high calories in the system. According to a study, children who eat fast food at least three times a week are more likely to develop asthma.
6. Effects Reproductive System: This is getting scarier! The ingredients in junk food and fast food may have an adverse effect on your fertility. According to a study, it was found that fast food have a high amount of phthalates and mono sodium glutamate. Phthalates and MSG can interrupt and play havoc with hormones in your body. Such chemicals can lead to infertility and birth defects in progeny.
7. Damages Skin: If you want clear and healthy skin, you should not even think about consuming fast food. Fast food does not have any nutritional value and as a result, your skin and hair both will suffer; after all, you are what you eat! Our grandmothers have always blamed greasy, oily food for acne breakouts, but according to a study conducted by Mayo Clinic, the main culprit is carbohydrate. Food rich in carbs leads to blood sugar spikes, and these sudden changes in blood sugar levels can trigger acne, If you really want to stay away from acne, watch what you eat!
8. Increases Inflammation and Leads to Weight Gain: When one puts on weight, leads an extremely stressful life, eats processed food, sleeps only for a short period of time, a protein called as C-reactive protein, which is considered to be an inflammatory marker present in the blood also rises up, making the body more and more acidic. Inflammation makes the body insulin resistant, and as a result, pancreas continuously pumps up insulin to lower blood sugar levels. Now, we all know that insulin is also a fat-storage hormone which triggers the creation of new fat cells. So, inflammation triggers insulin resistance, which in turn leads to more insulin production, and larger creation of fat cells which converts all extra calories into fat, and stores it particularly around the belly area.
9. Leads To Nutritional Deficiencies: For the body and important hormones to function properly, it needs nutrients, and all nutrients are sourced from food. Counting calories would totally be ineffective if you are not nourishing the body with vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients through the diet. Lack of vitamins, vitamin D3, magnesium, calcium, iron, chromium, coenzyme Q10 can absolutely stall the fat-burning process. It’s important to follow a healthy diet, like the Rati Beauty diet, to loose oodles of weigh the healthy way. Download the Rati Beauty app for more details.
10. Increases the Risk of Insulin Resistance: Insulin resistance is a condition where pancreas produces insulin but the cells stop responding to the efforts of this hormone by not allowing glucose to enter from the bloodstream. As a result, there’s an excess of glucose always circulation in the blood, and to get excess blood sugar out of the way, pancreas continue to secrete more insulin. As we have mentioned earlier, insulin triggers fat storage in the body. When you tend to eat a large amount of carbohydrates, especially refined flour (maida, pastas/cookies etc.) or sugary substances (pastries/cakes/cold drinks) on a daily basis, the body cells become immune to the efforts of insulin, and as a result, more and more insulin is required to stabilize blood sugar levels. Insulin resistance increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other major illnesses.
It’s important that people are aware about the harmful effects of regular consumption of fast food. Indulging in fast food once a while is okay, but avoid frequent trips to your favorite fast food joint. Hope this article helps you to stay fit and healthy.
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