Fast food burgers, fried chicken strongly linked to development of type 2 diabetes

Friday, February 05, 2010 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: diabetes, fast food, health news

(NaturalNews) A report recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that black women who consume fried chicken or fast food burgers at least twice a week are between 40 and 70 percent more prone to develop type 2 diabetes over the course of a decade than those who do not. Not only black women but all people who consume high calorie, low nutrient fast foods on even a moderate basis are susceptible to developing the disease.

Dr. Julie Palmer and her colleagues from Boston University analyzed over 44,000 black women who were instructed to complete questionnaires that they were given beginning back in 1995. Once concluded, researchers compared the results with another group of women who claimed never to eat fast food. The result was that not only were the women who ate fast food more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than the non-fast food group, they also were generally heavier with many falling into the overweight range.

The standard measuring tool for determining healthy body weight is the Body Mass Index (BMI). A healthy BMI is somewhere between 18.5 and 24.9. Most of the participants in the fast food group were somewhere between 28 and 29 when they started the study, which according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is overweight. Those in this group also continued to gain more weight during the course of the study.

Interestingly, the two foods that played the largest role in blood sugar disorder were fast food hamburgers and fried chicken. These foods were implicated in causing the most weight gain which resulted in more cases of diabetes. Nearly 3,000 women in the fast food eating group developed type 2 diabetes by the time the study concluded.

A previous fast food study conducted in 2004 by researchers from Boston Children's Hospital found similar results. After tracking more than 3,000 young adults for over 15 years, researchers found that people who ate at fast food restaurants more than twice a week gained an average of almost 10 pounds more than those who went only once a week. The twice a week group also had a 200 percent increase in insulin resistance compared to the once a week group.

Experts also concluded that those who ate the most fast food lived the most unhealthy lifestyles in general and were the most prone to developing other serious diseases throughout the course of their lives.

While some experts suggest consuming smaller portion sizes and less overall calories, a better option would be to make better food choices. Eating less fast food is good, but changing one's lifestyle to include whole, living foods is even better.

Sources for this story include: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BS37B... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4133099.st...