Junk Food Could Cause Blood Sugar Changes Similar to Diabetes

A diet high in junk food or fat, even in the short-term, could result in increased blood glucose levels and changes in renal glucose handling similar to those observed in type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.

“While previous studies show a significant role for diet on physiology, the increase in blood glucose and renal glucose handling, in response to a relatively short period of junk-food or high-fat diet consumption, was quite striking,” said lead author Havovi Chichger, PhD, senior lecturer in biomedical science at the Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. “The effects of long-term consumption of a junk-food diet on renal physiology are still not known.”
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The study used a rodent model of diabetes and rats rendered insulin-resistant using junk-food or high-fat diets. The rats were fed a junk-food diet consisting of cheese, chocolate, biscuits, and marshmallows for 8 weeks, or high-fat rodent chow for 5 weeks. The researchers examined the effects of these diets on glucose transporters in the kidneys (GLUT and SGLT).

Overall, the researchers observed similarly elevated levels of GLUT and SGLT—as well as their regulatory proteins—in both the high-fat and junk-food diet rats and the type 2 diabetes rats.

“As with all basic biomedical research, use of animal models can reveal potential physiological changes; however, further studies are needed to translate this research to humans,” Chichger said. “Yet the research, along with many other studies in the field, indicates that the consumption of junk food in the diet is detrimental.”

Ongoing research at University College London and Anglia Ruskin University will examine the physiological and molecular responses to junk food or specific components within junk food, as well as other types of diet, she said.

—Mike Bederka

Reference:

Chichger H, Cleasby ME, Srai SK, Unwin RJ, Debnam ES, Marks J. Experimental type II diabetes and related models of impaired glucose metabolism differentially regulate glucose transporters at the proximal tubule brush border membrane [published online May 10, 2016]. Exp Physiol. doi:10.1113/EP085670.