A new study has found a connection between mental health and the consumption of fast food.
Researchers in China recently published the results of a study linking eating fast food to feelings of depression and anxiety in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Of course, the regular consumption of fast food has long been associated with other afflictions such as hypertension and obesity.
Yet this new study claims that these unhealthy foods also negatively affect people’s mental health.
The researchers conducted a population study on over 140,000 people who reported their dietary habits. These dietary reports were logged and observed for a total of 11 years.
The scientists then searched for those who consumed greater amounts of fast food and monitored them for symptoms of anxiety and depression compared to the remainder of the group.
The research team observed that fast food consumption was “strongly associated” with a 12% higher risk of anxiety and a 7% higher risk of depression. The trend was most pronounced among the younger and male participants.
The study’s authors attributed this observation to the consumption of fried potato products and acrylamide.
Acrylamide is a substance that is typically formed in chemical reactions between sugars and asparagine during high-temperature cooking processes for plants, such as potatoes, per the FDA.
This substance has been shown to cause cancer in lab tests with animals. Yet the effect has not been observed in humans.
The agency reported that acrylamide can be found in the bloodstream of 99.9% of American citizens. But the presence of this chemical in the body does not mean that a person will experience any negative health effects.
Nonetheless, due to unknowns, the FDA has established guidelines for industries to reduce the presence of acrylamide in food.
The U.S. National Toxicology Program and the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives have also labeled it as a “human health concern,” per the FDA.
In the case of the recent study, researchers claim to have found the physiological mechanism explaining this link between acrylamide and mental health.
“We demonstrated that long-term exposure to acrylamide induces anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors via oxidative stress-mediated neuroinflammation, and unravel the underlying mechanism that PPAR signaling pathway mediates acrylamide-induced lipid metabolism disorder in the brain,” the researchers explained.
Dr. Uma Naidoo, director of nutritional and lifestyle psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Today that these new results concur with her research and that, in general, fast food should not be consumed all too frequently.
“It’s not about eating a potato, as it’s a healthy food in moderation and there are healthy ways to cook potatoes. But it is about the method of deep frying,” said Naidoo, according to TODAY.
Naidoo’s research observed that most fast food is typically fried in oils that can cause inflammation. This inflammation can occur in the gut and brain over time.
Chronic inflammation has been linked to an array of negative mental health outcomes, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Health experts have offered alternatives to fast food, suggesting baked, grilled, or even air-fried foods.
“Look at a fried food as a treat, and not as a daily habit,” said Angel Planells, a national media spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, per The Upside.
The benefits of eating fried foods sparingly go well beyond your mental health. As covered by The Dallas Express, obesity rates have been climbing at alarming rates across the U.S., both among adults and children.
In Texas, 20.3% of children ages 10-17 were classified as obese in 2019-20.
