14 DAY TRIAL // To study how weight gain and obesity correlate with increased diabetes risk, a team of researchers recently had a group of volunteers spend a week in bed gorging on hamburgers, pizza, ice cream, cookies and whatever other high-fat treats are out there.
The study participants, all perfectly healthy middle-age men, ate twice their body's needs, a report in the journal Science Translational Medicine explains.
They averaged around 6,200 calories per day, and once their week of feasting was over, they found that all their hard work advancing the progress of science had added 8 pounds (3.5 kilograms) to their silhouette. This extra weight was pure fat, tests revealed.
All that eating paid off, albeit only for the researchers
Specialists say that, merely two to three days after having been confined to their beds and made to eat twice as much as they needed to, with all the foods being rich in carbohydrates and fat, the study participants all developed insulin resistance.
This condition comes down to being unresponsive to the hormone insulin, which is naturally occurring in the body and which helps keep blood sugar levels in check. In time, insulin resistance translates into a buildup of sugar in the blood and, eventually, type 2 diabetes.
The insulin resistance that the volunteers developed after just a few days of eating too much for their own good and not getting nearly enough exercise was shown to correlate with increased oxidative stress in their body, Live Science tells us.
Thus, the researchers documented an increase in toxic compounds and changes in a protein dubbed GLUT4, an insulin-regulated glucose transporter. The team believe it was because of changes to this protein that the volunteers developed insulin resistance.
Better lay off junk food, unless you're planning to get sick
The fact that obesity correlates with diabetes isn't exactly breaking news. Still, this little experiment showed that it's not just those who have been obese for quite a while who risk developing obesity.
On the contrary, insulin resistance can occur even in the early stages of obesity, when people are just starting to gain weight. The morale: better lay off junk food and exercise on a regular basis.