A super-healthy medic who ate junk food for a month has revealed the shocking the impact it had on both his mind and his bowels.
Doctor-turned-YouTuber Matty Kenny embarked on an experiment in which he ate at least one junk food meal a day, as well as one home cooked meal, for 30 days, and compared the difference on various health measures.
He attached a wearable blood sugar monitor to his body to measure the impact of the different meals on his glucose levels — an indicator of energy levels and risk of suffering hunger pangs.
Posting the results in a YouTube video, that has so far been watched more than 760,000 times, he documented the alarming symptoms triggered by some of the junk food — including embarrassing bowel problems.
The ultra processed meals from chains like McDonald's, Papa John's and Taco Bell saw his blood sugar levels spike to unusually high levels, followed by a significant crash.
This pattern is said to increase the risk of hunger pangs and over-eating, and is linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes.
'Even at day one I already noticed a huge difference in the way I experienced the post meal slump. (The) fast food coma was way more sedating...I mean I was out like a light,' he said.
'Trying to get anything done that required serious concentration...was next to impossible for at least like an hour after I ate.'
Dr Kenny, who has posted numerous health-related videos such as supplement guides, gave a worrying description of the feeling that hit him after one Taco Bell dinner.
'I was sitting on the couch trying my best to read this new book I got and I got caught in a loop reading the same sentence over and over again trying to understand what it meant,' he said.
'I was feeling the full gamut of symptoms — brain fog, mental fatigue, all the while just sinking a little further into the couch while my eyes got heavier and heavier.'
The medic turned entrepreneur said this was due to his body experiencing reactive hypoglycaemia.
This occurs when the body creates a huge surge of glucose, the sugar in blood we use for energy, only to be followed by a crash, where blood sugar levels drop below normal leading to symptoms like fatigue and irritability.
In contrast, the home cooked meals made by medic, who is based in Los Angeles in the US, didn't provide this boom and bust of blood sugar, instead offering a sustained level of energy release.
Discussing the results from his handmade salmon fillets with broccoli and brown rice he said: 'We can see that the spike doesn't go nearly as high, it kind of comes on more gradually and then it never dips down below the starting point'.
He added: 'The brain fog I had after eating a home-cooked meal wasn't nearly as bad it was still there to be honest, but I was always able to build enough momentum to overcome the slump.'
Dr Kenny said the extreme effect on his blood sugar was made worse by the addition of sugary sodas to some junk food meals.
'I noticed that any time I paired my fast food with a soda...it spiked my glucose way higher than any other meal I ate,' he said.
He said the huge quantities of sugar in the drink, combined with the fact fizzy drink is liquid and therefore more readily absorbed by the body, compared to solid food, may be behind this effect.
While Dr Kenny's experiment was mainly focused on tracking the impact of ultra-processed food on his mental abilities, he also suffered some unpleasant physical side effects.
'Yesterday after I ate McDonald's, I had the worst stomach ache s***s. I'll be honest it was bad,' he said.
He also complained of 'explosive' diarrhoea after eating Taco Bell.
But despite the impact on his mind and gut, Dr Kenny said he wouldn't be swearing off fast food forever.
However, he will keep his experience in mind the next time he feels tempted.
'I'm not going to make any dumb promises and say that I'll never eat fast food again but it's something to keep in mind,' he said.
