Fast food and diabetes

A 15-year study found that people who consume fast food two or more times per week are at increased risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes.

From M, spring 2005

University assistant professor in epidemiology, Mark Pereira, and David Ludwig, director of the Obesity Program at Children's Hospital Boston, have shown a correlation between fast food, weight gain, and insulin resistance in the first long-term study on this subject. In their 15-year Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, they reported that fast food increases the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. The results were published in the January 1 issue of The Lancet.

"The CARDIA study factored in and monitored lifestyle factors including television viewing, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and smoking, but determined that increase in body weight and insulin resistance from fast-food intake seemed to be largely independent of these other lifestyle factors," says Ludwig.

Participants who consumed fast food two or more times a week gained approximately 10 more pounds and had twice as great increase in insulin resistance in the 15-year period than participants who consumed fast food less than once per week.