Eating Fried Foods Can Increase the Rate of Early Death
You probably already know that opting for fried chicken is the not the healthiest lunch choice, but a new study reports such fried foods could actually be linked to an earlier death.
Published in The BMJ, the observational study examined over 20 years worth of data from nearly 107,000 women, ages 50-79, in the United States. These women, who were also participants of a Women’s Health Initiative study, had completed an extensive questionnaire on their health and eating habits through the 1990s. Researchers then tracked the health of these women up until 2017. During the the study’s time span, more than 31,500 participants had passed away.
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To better isolate the effects of fried food on death risks, the study also took into account other factors like the women’s medical history, demographics, smoking, drinking, and eating habits. And while the authors note that it is impossible to completely rule out the rest of these factors, their findings did show that women who ate at least one serving of fried food daily were at 8 percent more risk of an earlier death, specifically from cardiovascular disease, than women who ate no fried food at all.
The worst fried foods to eat? Chicken and fish. The report concluded that this could be because people typically consume these foods in larger quantities than other fried foods like tortilla chips or French fries, Dr. Wei Bao, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa College of Public Health and a co-author of the study, told Time. Another factor may be that fried chicken and fish are often prepared differently to other fried foods; restaurants frequently reuse oil to fry numerous batches of fish or chicken, which can lead to more harmful byproducts being transfered between foods.
If you are aiming to eat healthier, try our favorite healthy dinner recipes. And when the desire for fried chicken hits, make our better-for-you oven-"fried" chicken.