What Happens after Only One High-Fat Meal?

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Thoughts?

So you’ve just finished your high fat dinner of a hamburger, cheese pizza or chicken…
What’s next?

Immediately . . .
• Your triglyceride levels, a measurement of fat in your bloodstream, are rising.
• Your cholesterol levels are increasing, contributing to plaque formation.
• Clotting factors in your blood have been activated.

Two hours later . . .
• Your triglycerides have increased by 60 percent.
• Your blood flow has decreased by half.

Three hours later . . .
• The lining of your arteries has lost elasticity impeding blood flow.
• Blood vessel function has become abnormal.

Four hours later . . .
• Your blood has gotten thicker, flowing even slower than it was 2 hours ago.

Five hours later . . .
• Your triglyceride levels have now increased by 150 percent.

Six hours later . . .
• The anti-inflammatory effect of “good” cholesterol has been significantly compromised.

Consumption of high-fat foods over days, weeks, months, years . . .
• Saturated fat in your diet has promoted the continuous buildup of plaque in your arteries, reducing blood
flow even further.
• Decreased blood flow leads to decreased oxygen supply, which can lead to a heart attack.
• You are in danger of developing fatty liver disease.

Larsen LF, Bladbjer EM, Jespersen J, Marckmann P. Effects of dietary fat quality and quantity on postprandial activation of blood coagulation factor VII. Arterioscler Thromb
Vasc Biol. 1997;17:2904-2909.
Vogel RA, Corretti MC, Plotnick GD. Effect of a single high-fat meal on endothelial function in healthy subjects. Am J Cardiol. 1997; 79:350-354.
Nicholls SJ, Lundman P, Harmer J, et al. Consumption of saturated fat impairs the anti-inflammatory properties of high-density lipoproteins and endothelial function. J
Am Coll Cardiol. 2006; 48: 715-720.
Hozumi T, Eisenberg M, Sugioka K, et al. Change in coronary flow reserve on transthoracic Doppler echocardiography after a single high-fat meal in young healthy men.
Ann Intern Med. 2002:136:523-528.
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