Fast Food Affecting Health Worldwide
Not only does junk food make people fatter. It also greatly increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In people with type 2 diabetes, muscle and fat cells are less able to take up a sugar called glucose from the blood. Glucose builds up to very high levels. The result is damage to eyes, kidney disease, neuropathy (loss of feeling) and heart disease . The majority of people who develop type 2 diabetes are obese or overweight.
The first long-term study of the link between fast food, obesity, and diabetes was reported January 1 st in The Lancet. People who ate fast food twice a week or more were compared to people who ate fast food less than once a week. Researchers found that the people who ate more fast food gained about 10 more pounds and had twice as much increase in insulin resistance over a 15-year period. That means they were less able to process blood sugars.
Even when the researchers considered other factors such as television viewing, exercise, drinking and smoking, they found that the results stemmed from the participants' fast food diet.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is waging a campaign against childhood obesity to reduce the number of children who will develop type 2 diabetes. In the U.S., the number of obese children went up 25% from the 1970s to the 1990s. As the American fast food industry has spread to other countries, 10 percent of children worldwide have become overweight or obese.
Fortunately, small changes in eating habits can make a big difference. In the United Kingdom, just limiting access to carbonated drinks resulted in slimmer school children. In Singapore, a school environment that offered nutrition education, healthy food and drinks, and special attention for students who were already overweight or obese resulted in a significant decline in the number of obese children.
