There's more dramatic information about the link between what we eat and the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The new findings from the atherosclerosis risk in communities, or ARIC, study, were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

In our fast food nation, there's new information about how what we eat may be putting us at greater risk of heart disease and diabetes and stroke.

"This is a fairly frightening study,” said Dr. Richard Stein, a cardiologist with the Heart Association.

Researchers looked at food intake in more than 9,000 adults. After nine years of follow-up, they found those who ate a diet heavy in refined grains, processed meat, fried foods, and sweetened or diet soda had a dramatically increased risk of metabolic syndrome, which is a group of risk factors that can lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

That means “somewhere toward the early 60s, almost 60 percent, 6 out of 10 of us, will have the metabolic syndrome," said Stein.

The study found the risk of developing the syndrome increased by 25 percent for adults who ate two or more servings of meat or chicken a day, compared with those who ate two or more servings per week.

The findings support a link between fast food consumption and metabolic syndrome. Researchers say that's especially concerning for our young children.

"As they hit their late teens and early 20s, they'll hit pre-hypertension and pre-diabetes and, somewhere in their late 30s and early 40s, a decade earlier than their parents, we're going to see this phenomenon occur,” said Stein.

Researchers say the findings send a clear message: as a culture, we need to do something that may be difficult -- change our eating patterns.
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Some doctors recommend what's called the dash diet, which is rich in fruits, vegetables, low fat dairy foods, and low in saturated and total fat.