Fast food makes the body more aggressive

According to a study by the University of Bonn, meals served in fast-food restaurants affect our genes and our immune system.

These foods, consisting mainly of fat and sugar, are low in fiber. While dieticians discuss the nutritional aspect of this “Western diet”, scientists have been interested in the effects of these foods. Among other things, their studies focused on the adaptation of specific genes to their environment.

The results of the experiment were published in the journal Cell.

The course of the experiment in question

To learn more about this phenomenon, researchers fed mice with fast food, similar to that of restaurants. First, the intake of fat and sugar was immediately considered an infection.

“The unhealthy diet has led to an unexpected increase in the number of certain immune cells in the blood of mice, particularly granulocytes and monocytes,” said Annette Christ, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bonn.

New genes activated

These studies show that by consuming fast food, the body becomes more aggressive. By taking this type of meal, “fast food sensors” are created and put on alert.

“It has recently been discovered that the innate immune system has a form of memory,” says Professor Dr. Eicke Latz, author of the study. “After an infection, the body’s defenses remain in a kind of alarm so that they can respond more quickly to a new attack.”