Hello(:
Social Studies and Literature mid-years are approaching! With the rise in our stress levels. we are tending to head for fast food to get convenient food to satiate our hunger. However we must always bear in mind of how bad fast food is for our health! According to reports credited to "club-vitamin.com", a combination of Egg McMuffins and Sausage McMuffins for breakfast, with slabs of fried hash browns on the side, can almost fcause one to feel their arteries slamming shut.
Yet when huge doses of vitamins C and E were added to the diet, an extraordinary thing happened. The subjects’ arteries responded to the high-fat meal as though they’d eaten a low-fat bowl of corn flakes.
Therefore, I believe that one who eats alot of fast-food (basically every living creature), should take their daily dose of healthy vitamins to counteract the harmful effects fast food has on our bodies.
It is scientifically believed that antioxidant vitamins can decrease the heart-disease risk posed by a fatty diet.
The 20 subjects who ate the fat-packed McDonald’s breakfast had impaired blood vessel function for up to four hours afterwards. But no such impairment was found on another day when they swallowed 20 times the recommended daily dosage of vitamins C and E immediately before eating the same meal.
I found this really amazing! The powers and great effects vitamins have on us is astounding!
The research appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"The predominant mechanism by which a high-fat (especially saturated fat) diet leads to atherosclerosis is by elevating serum cholesterol," wrote the authors, led by Dr. Gary Plotnick, a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Centre.
Their findings provide further evidence of a "second potential pathway" to hardened arteries in which dietary fats damage the endothelium, the inner layer of cells that line the heart and the blood vessels.
The study may help explain why people sometimes have heart attacks right after eating a big, fatty meal, and why some people with normal cholesterol levels develop heart problems, said Dr. Kenneth Cooper, author of The Antioxidant Revolution and founder of the Cooper Aerobics Centre in Dallas.
"This is just further information that documents the beneficial effects of antioxidants," Cooper said.
Antioxidants, such as the vitamins studied, work by soaking up dangerous byproducts that form when the body metabolizes oxygen. These byproducts, known as free radicals, can damage cells. They are thought to interact with some fats in a way that makes them clog arteries, and can produce cellular damage that sometimes leads to cancer.
Dr. Meir Stampfer, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard’s School of Public Health, called the study "a good piece of work and a nice step forward."
But, he added, "It was a small number of people and just one meal. We want to know what happens long term."
It’s unknown if antioxidant vitamins could block the effects of a consistently high-fat diet. Long-term use of vitamins in such high doses also could be harmful.
Plotnick stressed that findings are "very preliminary."
"We’re not ready to recommend people take vitamins and eat whatever they want," he said. ‘We need to repeat this on a long-term basis ... with more people."
The study involved 13 men and seven women ages 25 to 53 with normal cholesterol levels. They were monitored after eating different breakfasts on three separate days:
Two McMuffins with two patties of hash browns, containing 50 grams of fat (14 grams saturated fat) and 225 mg of cholesterol.
The same high-fat foods after ingesting 1000 mg of vitamin C and 800 international units of vitamin E.
A bowl of frosted corn flakes and 236 millilitres of skim milk, containing no fat and 13 grams of cholesterol.
For six hours after the subjects ate, their arm arteries were periodically constricted with blood-pressure cuffs and monitored with ultrasound.
The vitamin-enhanced high-fat meal and the low-fat meal produced the same, healthy response when the blood-pressure cuffs were released: The arteries dilated by about 20 per cent.
But after the high-fat meal alone, the arteries dilated significantly less than that for as long as four hours, an impaired response indicating possible accumulations of fat, the researchers said.
That suggested, the researchers said, that vitamins C and E prevent fatty foods from clogging the blood vessels and damaging their lining.
So, my dear friends, after reading this enlightening article, doesnt it just inspire you to take your vitamins regularly and not require your parents to nag at you before consuming them? What are you waiting for! start poing your daily dose of antioxidants!


Debra(:

credits and acknowledgement:
http://www.club-vitamin.com/pages/fattyfood.htm