More people worldwide are allegedly developing autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, or Crohn's disease because of one particular diet: fast food.
James Lee and Carola Vineusa, the experts from Francis Crick Institute in London, have devoted their study to find the root causes of autoimmune disease for years. They told the Observer that the popularity of fast food has contributed to this health problem because these products do not have the right nutritive value.
The experts further said that autoimmune cases have risen in Western countries for 40 years. Recently, however, they've observed a concerning trend in some countries where certain diseases have had an uptick as well. The increasing cases coincided with the boom of the fast-food industry in Asia and the Middle East.
Prevalence of Autoimmune Diseases
Autoimmune diseases develop when the body's immune system can't distinguish between a tissue and an invading organism. Thus, the immune system tends to also attack the healthy cells.
Inflammation then happens when the body tries to protect itself. However, such a repeated immune response could result in long-term damage to the body's organs and tissues.
In the U.S., more than seven percent of the adult population, or at least 24 million people, suffer from one or two autoimmune diseases, per the U.S. National Institutes of Health. In the U.K., four million people suffer from at least one autoimmune disease, while the rest of the world has autoimmune cases rising exponentially at three to nine percent a year.
Lee said that human genetics didn't change in the past few decades, so something else must be happening in the outside world "in a way that increases our predisposition to autoimmune disease." She and Vineusa believe that, over time, fast food diets may have altered people's microbiome, which controls bodily functions since these are missing key nutritional components like fiber. Now, more than 100 types of autoimmune diseases are cropping up, including "enigmatic diseases."
For instance, inflammatory bowel disease has more than 250 variants today. When the pair started their research years ago, they were just a dozen inflammatory bowel diseases. The experts warned that in due time many people would likely need invasive procedures like surgeries or injections for the rest of their lives because of their food intake.
Why Families Pick Out Fast Food
A survey from WebMD revealed that families pick out fast food because these are quick to prepare, inexpensive, and perfect for socializing or group eating. Despite doctors saying that fast food is essentially junk food, the average family in America spends most of their food budget on fast food products compared to 40 years ago.
Efforts to raise awareness on the ill effects of eating fast food regularly may have driven up in the last four decades as well, but a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed fast food ingredients largely remain unchanged.
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