German Scientists have found that fastfood diets boost inflammation
in the body and over time, change genes and the immune system while
boosting the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic
conditions.
According to a study published in the journal ‘Cell’, the
impact of fast food diets are long lasting, such that even switching to a
healthy diet afterwards may not fully reverse the damage once initially
triggered.
The University of Bonn research conducted by scientists from
Germany, the Netherlands, the United States (U.S), and Norway, found
that the same process is triggered by an unhealthy diet, unleashing a
cascade of biological effects that lead to chronic disease.
Similarly, they found that the immune system responds to a fast
food-style Western diet the same way as it would react to a bacterial or
viral infection, the ‘newsmaxHealth’ reported. In addition, the study
suggests that fast foods stimulate an acute inflammatory response and
alter genes responsible for the proliferation of immune cells in the
body that have been found to have a sort of memory. Fast food is a
mass-produced food that is prepared and served very quickly.
The food is typically less nutritionally valuable, compared to other
foods and dishes. While any meal with low preparation time can be
considered fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a
restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredients, and
served to the customer in a packaged form for take-out/take-away.
Researcher Dr. Eicke Latz, director of the Institute for Innate
Immunity of the University of Bonn, said that the foundations of a
healthy diet needed to become a much more prominent part of education
than they are at present.
He added:“Only in this way can we immunise
children at an early stage against the temptations of the food industry.
“Children have a choice of what they eat every day.
We should enable them to make conscious decisions regarding their
dietary habits.” The researchers tracked mice fed an unhealthy diet —
high in saturated fats, sugar and salt, while mostly devoid of fresh
fruit, vegetables, and fibre.
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