Excessive consumption of fried food and potato chips has been associated with elevated levels of depression and anxiety.
More than 140,000 persons in the UK were analyzed; each participant filled out a 24-hour food recall questionnaire up to four times. For an average of 11 years, researchers tracked these individuals to determine if they developed anxiety or depression.
What did the Scientist Discover?
Researchers in Hangzhou, China found that persons who regularly ate fried meals, particularly fried potatoes, had a 12% higher risk of anxiety and a 7% higher risk of depression compared to those who rarely ate fried foods. Younger customers and men in particular showed a stronger connection.
Consuming fried meals is associated with an increased risk of weight gain, hypertension, and other adverse health outcomes. These findings “open an avenue in the significance of reducing fried food consumption for mental health,” as stated in a report published on Monday in the journal PNAS.
140,728 people were studied over 11.3 years. After excluding participants diagnosed with depression within two years, fried food consumers had 8,294 cases of anxiety and 12,735 cases of depression. Fried potatoes had a 2% higher risk of depression than fried white meat.
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Rising Rates of Anxiety and Depression
Yu Zhang, a professor at Zhejiang University and one of the study’s authors, however, keeping a healthy lifestyle and limiting fried food intake may have positive effects on both physical and mental well-being.
According to the studies, by 2020 there would be a 27.6 and 25.6 percent increase in the global prevalence of depression and anxiety, respectively. More than 5% of adults worldwide experience depression, according to WHO estimates, as stated in the report.
Researchers compared the effects of acrylamide exposure in zebrafish to those of eating fried food on people, and their findings imply that the chemical typically found in fried food may have harmful impacts on mental health if consumed on a regular basis.
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