Negative Health Effects as Western-Style Diet Spreads Eastward

Previously, a number of nutritionists and scientists have warned that the Western-style diet  – most notably featuring fast foods, promotes type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. As Western foods become more widely available in Asia, public health experts have begun to observe rising disease and death rates due to diabetes and coronary heart disease in Asian nations. Andrew O. Odegaard from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (Minnesota, USA), and colleagues analyzed data collected on more than 52,000 subjects, ages 45 to 74 years, enrolled in the Singapore Chinese Health Study. The team followed participants are for five years, during which the subjects were asked about their fast food consumption habits, and tracked for the onset of type-2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. The subjects who consumed Western-style fast food two or more times a week were at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus and dying of coronary heart disease, as compared to their peers with little or no reported such intake.  Specifically, the coronary heart disease risk increased by 56%, and diabetes odds by 27%, among Chinese Singaporeans who ate fast food at least twice a week. Warning that: “Western-style fast food intake is associated with increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus and of coronary heart disease mortality in an Eastern population,” the study authors submit that: “These findings suggest the need for further attention to global dietary acculturation in the context of ongoing epidemiological and nutrition transitions.”