If you need another reason to try to stick to your goals of eating healthier this year, there’s a new analysis that may help you stay on track.
Researchers pooled data from studies published through April 2020 and discovered consumption of fried foods is associated with an increased risk of major heart disease and stroke.
The findings were published online in the journal Heart, according to a press release from the peer-reviewed journal BMJ.
The more fried food you eat, the greater the risk — and it doesn’t have to be a great amount, either. Consuming an additional 114 grams, which is 4 ounces or 1/2 a cup, of fried food leads to an increased risk.
For the analysis, researchers gathered data from 17 of the 19 relevant studies, which involved 562,445 participants and 36,727 major cardiovascular events including a stroke or heart attack. They assessed cardiovascular disease risk in those studies.
Additionally, they collected data from six studies that involved 754,873 participants and 85,906 deaths during an average of 9.5 years. This served to evaluate the possible association between eating fried food and cardiovascular disease-related deaths and of any cause.
Compared with the lowest level of weekly fried food consumption, the highest was tied to a 28% greater risk of major cardiovascular events. There was a 22% greater risk of coronary heart disease and a 37% increased heart failure risk. There was also a linear association with eating 1/2 a cup of fried foods and cardiovascular events such as heart failure.
The risks heavily increased by 3%, 2% and 12%, respectively with each additional 4-ounce serving.
“Fried-food consumption may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and presents a linear dose-response relation. However, the high heterogeneity and potential recall and misclassification biases for fried-food consumption from the original studies should be considered,” researchers concluded.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States among men, women and people in most ethnic and racial groups, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The American Heart Association reported that nearly half of all U.S. adults have a form of cardiovascular disease.
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