Fried food, especially French fries, linked to anxiety, depression
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Key takeaways:
- Frequently eating fried food, especially fried potato, was associated with a greater risk for anxiety and depression.
- The associations were strongest in men and younger people.
Fried food consumption was associated with higher risks for anxiety and depression, according to findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
“There is mounting evidence demonstrating the importance of dietary factors in the development and progression of mental disorders such as anxiety and depression,” Anli Wang, of the Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Agro-Food Processing in the Zhejiang University College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science in China, and colleagues wrote. “Unfortunately, the relationship between fried food consumption and anxiety and depression symptoms and underlying mechanisms have been unclear prior to the current study.”
Wang and colleagues evaluated U.K. Biobank data from 140,728 participants who had information available on their diet, anxiety and depression states and other mental health conditions.
Over an average of 11.3 years of follow-up, 8,294 participants had anxiety and 12,735 had depression. Participants who ate more than one serving of fried food per day were more likely to be men, younger and smoke, as well as have a higher BMI, lower household income, lower educational attainment, lower vitamin supplement use and higher energy intake compared with people who did not consume fried foods.
In multivariable analyses, fried food consumption increased the risk for anxiety by 12% (HR = 1.12; 95% CI, 1.06-1.18) and the risk for depression by 7% (HR = 1.07; 95% CI, 1.02-1.12). Specifically, fried white meat and fried potato were associated with a 4% greater risk for anxiety (P = .003 and P = .006 for trend, respectively). Fried potato consumption increased the risk for depression by 2% (P = .031 for trend), but the association between fried white meat and depression was not significant in multivariable analyses.
Subgroup analyses revealed that male and younger consumers had a stronger association between fried foods and depression and anxiety symptoms.
Researchers also exposed a zebrafish model to acrylamide, a dangerous fried food contaminant, to further evaluate the associations with depression and anxiety. They found that long-term exposure to acrylamide elicited anxiety and depression behaviors.
Moving forward, Wang and colleagues said longitudinal studies with longer follow-up in more ethnically and age-diverse populations is needed.
Perspective
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This is consistent with a lot of other research for medical conditions — obesity, heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome — that there is an inflammatory process that plays a role in many of those diseases and it seems to have an environmental component, as well as the literature on the health benefits of Mediterranean diet, minimizing eating saturated fats and so on. That is very well-established, old literature. There is compelling literature about inflammation and mood and anxiety disorders, and so it is not surprising that that there would be things that people put in their bodies that would worsen inflammation that could be associated with depression and anxiety.
This is a rather large 140,728-subject study where they were looking at how dietary consumption was related to anxiety and depression. Even when they controlled from all sorts of other factors, it still looked like the consumption itself was of effect beyond income, race, education and other factors that might be related to stress or likelihood of depression. What is alarming about this is all the stuff that we are putting in our mouths — all these modified chemicals from the food industry that taste good and make us want to eat more food and help with preserving the food —may have effects on the immune system and the brain that have not been well-understood. If you look at the obesity epidemic and the use of artificial sweeteners and all kinds of artificial fats, it is very alarming.
The relevance for the individual patient and doctor would be that diet is a key aspect of managing mood and anxiety disorders. The mind-body-brain is all connected and what you put in your mouth, what you smoke and what you drink can have a big effect on mood and anxiety and other psychiatric conditions, as well as exercise because of its inflammatory effects. This is another piece of the puzzle that makes one want to avoid highly processed foods and all the junk food that we really all love to eat. If you are eating a lot of fried foods, it may have other negative effects beyond increasing your weight and blood pressure. As a practicing psychiatrist, it is something to be wary of and consider more when working with patients. It is yet another thing you should think about when you are trying to get your depression and anxiety under control.
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