A team of scientists has found a possible link between frequent consumption of fried foods and increased levels of anxiety and depression among consumers. In their study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Food Group from Zhejiang University in China described analyzed data from 140,728 people.
Some previous research has suggested links between Western dietary patterns and mental health problems.
Suspecting that at least some of the evidence could be attributed to frequent consumption of fried foods, the team compared reports of anxiety and depression with eating behaviors, in which frequent consumption of fried foods is included.
They found that people who reported eating a lot of fried foods were more likely to report symptoms of anxiety and/or depression.
Specifically, the study showed that people who reported eating these types of foods had between 7% and 12% increased symptoms, with the greatest risk appearing to be associated with eating french fries. Is.
While eating such foods may increase the likelihood of mental health problems, the team isolated acrylamide (a crystalline organic compound that is soluble in water), which they describe as a food processing contaminant that forms when food is fried. Appears.
less sociable
They tested the effects of acrylamide on zebrafish and found that it reduced their enthusiasm to explore new areas and limited their sociability, both signs of phototaxis and thigmotaxis, which are behaviors in fish that are similar to those observed in humans. Anxiety and depression are considered similar.
They also found that acrylamide consumption reduced the expression of tjp2a, which has been found to play a role in blood-brain barrier permeability.
The team acknowledges that more work is needed to definitively prove that frequent consumption of fried foods causes mental health problems; acknowledges that the people in the data set might have studied consumed more fried foods because they were suffering from anxiety or depression.
