Everything taken in excess is poison, an old saying goes. This adage is very much applicable to overeating.
Eating is an essential aspect of our existence and survival, but eating excessively can have a negative impact on your health. Only a few people understand the difference between healthy eating and overeating. This makes us prone to eat in excessive quantities. Here are some of the health risks of overeating:
1. It can cause excessive weight gain or obesity.
If they are not expended accordingly, your body will store the substances of the excess foods that you eat. These will become fats that can make you gain extra weight. If you won't control your excessive eating habits, you will deposit an extra 5 to seven pounds in a month, and this can lead to obesity.
2. It raises your risk to diabetes.
Your excessive food intake can also cause the sugar levels of your body to rise, but your pancreas won't be able to produce enough insulin to break sugar into glucose and move them from the blood into the cells. When undigested sugar enters your bloodstream, it makes you prone to diabetes.
3. It raises your risk to cardiovascular diseases.
The excess foods that you eat are stored in your body as fats. When these fats get into the arterial walls, it makes the heart work harder to pump sufficient amounts of oxygen-rich blood. This can be a cause for heart attack.
4. It can trigger indigestion.
People who overeat are prone to indigestion. This is because the digestive system is able to process only normal amounts of food that you eat. This is manifested by stomach pain, vomiting, or diarrhea.
5. It can cause sleep problems.
Inability to sleep and sleep apnea are two of the most common sleep-related problems that overeating brings. Overeating causes the digestion process to work slowly. This hampers the supply of oxygen to the heart, and this can cause sleep problems.
6. It makes you prone to infertility.
Overeating increases the amounts of fats in the body, and this can cause hormonal imbalance. This can lead to low testosterone levels and reduced sperm production.
7. It raises the risk of arthritis and osteoporosis.
The deposit of excess fats around the bones can cause osteoporosis because these fats block essential minerals like calcium and phosphorous to reach the bones.
Arthritis is caused by the degeneration of the synovial fluid, whose main function is to serve as a lubricant in the joints, tendon sheaths and bursa. It can also be caused by excess fats which secrete cytokines. These are signaling molecules that trigger inflammation.
These are some of the most common health risks of overeating. You should maintain healthy eating habits; they will reward you with a healthy body and a healthy life.
