A study should worry people who love French fries

Most people like French fries because they are tasty, but they should also know about a new study that should worry those who like them.

CNN stated that a study found that eating fried food often, especially fried potatoes, can raise the risk of anxiety by up to 12% and the risk of depression by up to 7%.

This kind of risk is more likely to happen to young people.

Fried foods are linked to high blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight gain. The study paper that was published in the journal PNAS said that the results “open up a new way of thinking about how important it is to eat less fried food for mental health.”

Nutrition experts, on the other hand, said that the early results don’t show if eating fried foods is the main cause of mental health problems or if people who already had anxiety and sadness started eating fried foods.

Over 11.3 years, the experts looked at the information about 140,728 people. People who were labelled with depression in the first two years were not allowed to take part. The study found that fried food was eaten by 8,284 people with anxiety and 12,735 people with sadness.

The study also found that fried potatoes increased the chance of depression by 2% compared to fried white meat.

It also showed that most of the people who usually ate more than one serving of fried food were younger men.

Lifestyle medicine expert Dr. David Katz, who wasn’t involved in the study, said, “The human part of this study may show just what it says: that eating more fried food raises the risk of anxiety/depression.”

Katz, who started the non-profit True Health Initiative, a global coalition of experts dedicated to evidence-based lifestyle medicine, also said, “However, the causal pathway could just as easily go the other way: people with anxiety or depression are turning to “comfort food” more and more to feel better.”

He also pointed out that people with anxiety and sadness could use comfort foods as a way to help themselves feel better.

A previous study that was cited in this article also said that poor nutrition can make someone feel bad and make a mental health situation worse.

Walter C. Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said, “The health effects of fried food will depend a lot on what kind of food is fried and what kind of fat is used to fry it.”

He said, “Potatoes are a worry for how they might affect mood because they can cause big spikes in blood sugar, which then cause hormones to react.” But fat, such as the fat from cooking, can slow down these waves to some extent.

Willett also said that acrylamide is not only made by cooking, but is also found in roasted coffee beans and toast, because “heating carbs and proteins together can do this.”

Anxiety and sadness are getting worse.
Yu Zhang, one of the people who wrote this study, told CNN, “There’s no need to worry about the bad effects of fried food.” But they stressed that keeping a healthy lifestyle and eating less cooked food might be good for mental health as well as physical health.

The study also showed that there has been a new rise in anxiety and depression around the world by using data from 2020: 27.6% and 25.6%, respectively.

The paper also said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that more than 5% of people suffer from depression.

Katz said, “If there’s one thing to remember, it’s that the overall quality of your diet and the foods you choose to eat are very important to your mental and physical health.”