Deadly diet: Study finds high-fat, high-sugar Western diet increases risk of sepsis, death

Most people know that living off of cheeseburgers, potato chips and soda isn’t good for them — but just how bad is it? New research shows that the long-term ramifications of the “standard American diet” are probably worse than you think. In addition to an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, the typical Western diet is now also linked to an increased risk of sepsis and death.

It seems that fast food also comes with an express pass to your grave –and getting there will be one heck of a ride. After a lifetime of eating toxic  junk, the pharmaceutical industry will cash in on what’s left of you — exploiting your poor health for their financial gain. There is an entire system at work here: The food industry makes people sick, and then Big Pharma steps in to sweep up (and make some money). But the pharma industry never actually cures people; instead, they keep them just well enough not to die right away.

Experts say that most modern diseases can be prevented with proper diet and lifestyle changes. This new research confirms (again) the importance of good nutrition today — and the dangers of eating like you’ll die tomorrow.

The deadly diet

Study leader Professor Brooke Napier says their findings indicate the mice were experiencing these adverse effects from something in their diet specifically, and the increased rates of illness and death were not related to changes in gut bacteria or body weight.

Professor Napier hypothesizes that the Western diet may have been altering the animals’ immune systems through an unknown mechanism.

“The mice’s immune system on the Western diet looked and functioned differently. It looks like the diet is manipulating immune cell function so that you’re more susceptible to sepsis, and then when you get sepsis, you die quicker,” she explained.

Food is causing disease

Whenever we talk about diet as the cause of disease, it seems that few dare mention the inverse of this equation: Diet as a way to prevent and treat disease. In a world where medicine is ruled by pharmaceutical dogma, the power of nutrition is seldom recognized.

In the second edition of Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, the authors note than an overwhelming majority of disease in the United States could be prevented simply through diet and lifestyle:

Among U.S. adults, more than 90 percent of type 2 diabetes, 80 percent of CAD, 70 percent of stroke, and 70 percent of colon cancer are potentially preventable by a combination of nonsmoking, avoidance of overweight, moderate physical activity, healthy diet, and moderate alcohol consumption (Willett 2002).

Research consistently shows that what we eat has an affect on our health. And yet, there are horrifying gaps in safety testing for agrichemicals and food additives. Scientists have confirmed that the industries responsible for manufacturing these chemicals have no idea what their real-world effects will be. No manufacturer is required to test how their active ingredient will interact with other chemicals. And of course, GMOs are another whole can of worms.

So basically, when you eat processed junk food, you’re basically consuming a cocktail of chemicals with unknown effects. Combine this with the fact that the Big Food industry has a history of trying to cover up how toxic their products are, and the ill effects of the standard Western diet are no longer so mysterious.

Learn more about what you’re eating at Food.news.

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

Eurekalert.org