A new study published in The BMJ reveals daily consumption of fried chicken leads to premature death. The research links daily consumption of fried chicken with 13% higher risks of early death. In the same vein, the study links daily consumption of fried fish with 7% higher risks of dying before time. The conclusion of the study does now however apply to everyone, and lifestyle changes could make a huge difference.
The study was conducted with women participants aged 50 to 70 over an 18-year period. The researchers analyzed the fried foods consumed by the 106,966 participants up to February 2017. The frequency at which the women ate fish, tortilla chips, chicken, French fries and tacos among other fried foods were computed over the period.
Within the 18 years under review, 31,588 study participants died. Out of these, 8,359 died from heart-related problems.
Wei Bao, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa, said people all over the world eat fried food, but the long-term health effect of fried food remains largely unknown. Existing studies had linked fried food with heart disease and diabetes, but this is the first study to associate fried food with early death.
Regardless of the education, income, lifestyle and quality of food consumed by the individual, the risks of early death occasioned by regular consumption of fried food remained constant. Since daily fried chicken brings about 13% risks of early death, 12% of this death risks are related to heart problems.
However, there is no proof that fried food leads to higher risks of cancer.
Certain factors however seem to alter the results of this research. It was found that fried food is not associated with premature death in Spain because the people use olive oil to fry their foods. This means the quality and type of oil used for the frying might influence risks of early death, since certain oils are more heart-friendly than others.
“Reducing the consumption of fried foods, especially fried chicken and fried fish/shellfish, may have clinically meaningful impact across the public health spectrum,” the researchers wrote.
