Eating too fast can increase diabetes risk –Experts

Health and nutrition experts have cautioned Nigerians against rushing their foods, noting that eating too fast could increase the risk of having diabetes.

The experts noted that to ensure proper digestion, the consumption of any food should not be too fast.

One of the experts – a professor of medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Olufemi Fasanmade, warned that people who rush their foods could be at risk of diabetes.

The physician stated that eating too fast tends to make people gain weight and become obese, adding that most obese people are insulin resistant, meaning their body has to struggle to bring down blood sugar.

Fasanmade said when the body is unable to bring down the sugar level in the blood; it will result in high blood sugar which is what often leads to diabetes.

Fasanmade who is also a consultant physician/endocrinologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, said the link between speed eating and diabetes is obesity.

He said, “I jokingly tell people that fast food puts you at risk for diabetes and eating fast also puts you at risk for diabetes because people that eat very fast usually put on weight easier.

“The human body is like a tank of petrol because for a car to move, it needs fuel and when your fuel tank is low you have to refill. If you go to a filling station and the speed of filling up your tank is too fast, some of the fuel will spill over because of the speed.

“That happens in the human body too. When we are slightly hungry, signals go to our brain that we are low on fuel, when we are extremely hungry the messages are intense and some people might start to have a cramp or ache in their stomach which is just to remind you that you must eat.

“When you have that feeling and you gradually start to eat, those messages will slow down and disappear and the message that says ‘eat more, eat more’, will start to fade.

“If your tank is showing an empty tank and you start filling it, the light warning you the tank is empty disappears so the body is also wired in such manner.

“But if you eat so fast before the signal gets to the brain that you are full, you have become over full,” the endocrinologist said.

Fasanmade further stated that a person who eats fast is likely to overeat and take in more calories than needed; adding that consuming too many calories is likely to contribute to weight gain.

He stated that most obese people are insulin resistant, adding that it is the reason their sugar does not come down easily even after they have eaten.

Insulin, the physician said, is the chemical the body produces to bring down blood sugar.

“Most obese people are insulin resistant which means the body has to struggle to bring down blood sugar.

“So for instance, if an insulin resistant person takes the same food, same size and quantity of food with someone who is not insulin resistant, the person with the insulin resistance will have a higher blood sugar than the person with insulin sensitivity because the work of insulin is to bring down high blood sugar.

“Their sugar does not come down easily and high blood sugar is what leads to diabetes,” Fasanmade noted.