What happens within a few hours of eating a high-fat meal?
Our age is the same as the age of our arteries. How can we maintain arterial function as we age? Poor diet and sedentary behavior can trigger harmful aging processes, including failure of tiny power plants within cells, leading to the production of free radicals, oxidative stress, and inflammation, which can lead to arterial dysfunction, leading to cardiovascular disease and ending our lives.
In a series of videos I did about 10 years ago, I discussed groundbreaking research showing that consuming a single high-fat meal can paralyze arterial function within hours of ingestion, as seen below and at 1:04 of my video “Saturated Fat Causes Artery and Lung Inflammation.”
In the study, the high-fat diets that caused the most damage to artery function included McDonald’s Sausage and Egg McMuffins. How do you know it’s the sausage, eggs, or cheese that’s the culprit? What about those crappy carbs in biscuits or something? Because a low-fat diet that doesn’t impair artery function was a sweet mess of Kirby Frosted Flakes.
When arterial function finally starts to recover, 5-6 hours later, it’s time for lunch. Then again, large amounts of meat, eggs, dairy products, and oils can damage your arteries. Why is it so important what happens in the body after a meal? Because most of us spend about 16 hours a day in that post-meal state, constantly taking a toll on our arteries. No wonder cardiovascular disease is our number one cause of death.
And not only the arteries of the heart but also the lungs become inflamed. “High-fat intake increases airway inflammation and impedes recovery of bronchodilators in asthma.” When asthmatics coughed up phlegm from their lungs four hours after eating the same type of high-fat meal, there was a surge in inflammatory cells in the high-fat diet group, as you can see below and at 2 minutes and 12 seconds of my video.
In terms of lung function, two doses of an inhaler (containing a drug called albuterol or ventolin) after a low-fat meal can help open the airways normally. However, after a high-fat meal, the same inhaled medication is less effective and, as you can see below and at 2:29 in my video, the symptoms start a few hours later due to extra inflammation in the lungs.
What you eat determines how well you breathe.
However, these study participants were asthma patients. Researchers found that even people without asthma experienced a similar surge of inflammatory cells in the phlegm they coughed up from their lungs four hours after eating, in this case, Jimmy Dean’s Meat Lover’s Breakfast Bowl.
And it’s not just that inflammatory cells are increasing. The amount of pro-inflammatory oxidized LDL cholesterol absorbed by the type of white blood cells that continue to form foam cells is doubled. These are cells that cause inflamed pus to build up in artery walls, causing a heart attack. In this case, all of this happens within just a few hours of eating the pizza. As you can see below and at 3:16 of my video, there is an increase in fat in the blood and an increase in endotoxin levels.
Endotoxin is a component of bacterial cell walls, and foods such as meat are contaminated with bacteria, both living and dead, which can lead to endotoxin accumulation. As you can see below and at 3:28 of my video, I’m talking about both red and white meat.
However, recent research (published in 2020) suggests that the main culprit may not be endotoxin after all, but fat itself. Saturated fats floating in the blood after eating an unhealthy diet may be contributing to inflammation more directly. In any case, we are responsible for what we eat at every meal in forming risk factors for chronic metabolic diseases.
doctor’s note
This topic is the first in a three-part series on saturated fats and fast food. The next two are exercise to protect your arteries from fast food and foods to protect your arteries from saturated fat.
What about the “butter is back” study? Check out the related articles below.
