High-Fat Fast-Food Meals Cause the Heart to Beat Harder and Blood Pressure to Rise

A new study from the Journal of Nutrition finds that a single fatty meal can cause the heart to beat harder and blood pressure to rise. Researchers at the University of Calgary analyzed the affects of either a high-fat fast-food meal (42 grams of fat) or a meal with no more than 1.3 grams of fat among 30 healthy participants. The results showed that when both groups were subjected to a series of standard stress tests, those who ate the high-fat meal saw their blood pressure go up 1.25 to 1.5 times higher than the participants who ate the low-fat meal.