A new study published in Experimental Physiology tell us that eating a junk food diet may cause as much damage to the kidneys as having diabetes.
In this study the researchers used animal models of diabetes and of diet-induced obesity to see how insulin resistance and excess sugar or fat affect the kidneys. One group of rats were fed chocolate bars, biscuits, marshmallows and cheese for 8 weeks. Another group was fed a rodent chow high in fat (containing 60%) for 5 weeks. The researchers then tested the effect of these diets on blood sugar levels and glucose transporting mechanisms of the kidneys. The effect of the diets on these transporters was compared with the changes also seen in rat models of diabetes.
They found that certain types of glucose transporters were present in a higher number in type 2 diabetic rats. But a high fat diet and junk food diet caused a similar increase in those receptors.
Dr Havovi Chichger, lead author of the study from the Anglia Ruskin University, UK expalined, “The Western diet contains more and more processed junk food and fat, and there is a well-established link between excessive consumption of this type of food and recent increases in the prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes. In our study, type 1 and type 2 diabetes both induce changes in glucose transport in the kidney, but junk food or a diet high in fat causes changes that are very similar to those found in type 2 diabetes.”
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