The first study to show that the adverse effects of fried foods may vary depending on the genetic makeup of the individual was released today.
People with a genetic predisposition to obesity are at a higher risk of obesity and related chronic diseases from eating fried foods than those with a lower genetic risk, according to the study by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School (HMS).
“Our study shows that a higher genetic risk of obesity may amplify the adverse effects of fried food consumption on body weight, and high intakes of fried food may also exacerbate the deleterious genetic effects,” said Lu Qi, lead author and assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
The study appeared online today in the British Medical Journal.
The researchers analyzed data from 9,623 women in the Nurses’ Health Study, 6,379 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and 21,426 women in the Women’s Genome Health Study. Participants filled out food-frequency questionnaires that asked how often they ate fried foods both at home and away from home. Body mass index (BMI) and lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, were also assessed. Genetic risk scores were calculated based on genetic variants associated with BMI. Read more…