Fast Food and Metabolic Syndrome
There is yet another group of researchers trying their best to demonstrate how bad fast food is. If you’re tempted to roll your eyes at this point, I could hardly blame you. This is something that most of us “know” even though we really don’t have a whole lot of proof in the form of studies and tests because they are often contradictory or do not go far enough. If you’ve been reading here for the past five years you already understand why this connection is so difficult to make. It’s like the contradictory cover on the book, “Good Calories, Bad Calories.” It has a piece of toast with butter. Prior to reading the book, you might conclude that the butter is the bad calories and the bread is the good but you would be mistaken.
On the informative site, Medpagetoday, I saw an article that concluded that burgers, fries, and diet soda increased a person’s risk for metabolic syndrome by twenty-five percent. Of course, all that really says is that if four people consume burgers, fries and diet soda, one of them will be at risk for metabolic syndrome.
Basically, the researchers looked at 3,782 of the participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. They reported that the participants had three or more of the risk factors that are used to define metabolic syndrome after eating the typical Western diet. Dr. Lyn Steffen and her colleagues reported online in Circulation, a Journal of the American Heart Association. These participants self-reported that they consumed burgers, fries, and diet soda.
An unexpected finding was that consuming a prudent diet (i.e. one that had a high concentration of fruits, vegetables, whole grains) and low-fat dairy products did not reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome. “We had expected to see a benefit because we have seen a beneficial relationship in other studies,” Dr. Steffens said.
It appears that one is no better off eating the “prudent diet” then they would be eating burgers, fries and diet soda.
However, I recall that there was a doctor who used fast food to cure diabetes. This was one of the early stories I read that changed my life. Dr. Mary Vernon has operated a clinic in Lawrence, Kansas where she tells her patients that fast food is okay. However, there is one caveat: At the McDonald’s at 6th and Wakarusa in Lawrence, Kansas, the employees have to fill some unusual orders, like when her patients stride in and ask for a double cheeseburger — hold the bun. Dr. Vernon saw unprecedented success helping diabetics reverse their Type 2 diabetes by identifying and avoiding carbohydrates. Most think it’s impossible to remove carbohydrates but it actually works. (Read there for why.)
Unfortunately, Dr. Vernon has gotten herself in a bit of trouble recently but hopefully this will not detract from the great work that she was doing helping her patients reverse diabetes.
The bottom line is that there is nothing wrong with burgers as long as you hold the bun. Avoid the french fries and the diet soda and drink water. If you can do that, you can enjoy burgers for the rest of your life.
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