Eating a lot of fried foods can promote anxiety and depressive disorders: This was revealed by a large study involving more than 140,000 individuals and published in the journal PNAS. The study, conducted at Zhejiang University in China, suggests a biological mechanism that explains how fried foods can promote mental disorders.
Numerous studies in the past have linked Western diets to mental health. However, the long-term effects of habitually consuming fried foods on anxiety and depression and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Our study, which was based on a population of 140,728 people, revealed that frequent consumption of fried foods, especially hash browns, was strongly associated with an increased risk of anxiety and depression by 12% and 7%, respectively.
Male consumers and younger consumers are most at risk. After the epidemiological study, the experts moved their work to the lab, where they saw that chronic exposure to acrylamide, a by-product of the frying process (which fried foods are rich in) has been repeatedly called into question for its effects on health. , causes disorders of fat metabolism in the brain and neuritis. In particular, chronic exposure to acrylamide leads to dysregulation of sphingolipid and phospholipid metabolism, which play an important role in the onset of symptoms of anxiety and depression. Moreover, acrylamide has been shown to promote oxidative stress (with the formation of free radicals), which is involved in the onset of symptoms of anxiety and depression, causing neuroinflammation of the brain.
Together, these findings, from an epidemiological point of view and in terms of the underlying mechanisms involved, provide strong evidence for the mechanism of acrylamide-induced anxiety and depression and underscore the importance of reducing fried consumption for mental health, conclude the authors of the work.
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