Twitter
Advertisement

Fried food myth debunked

A new study disproves the theory that fried food can cause heart attacks; it also says that olive and sunflower oils are the best.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Do you hanker after fried food but keep controlling yours urges because of the numerous advertisements that link the use of cooking oil to heart disease? If that is the case, you need not worry any more.

A study published in the British Medical Journal has found no association between the frequency of fried food consumption — when olive or sunflower oil is used — and the incidence of serious heart disease and premature death.

The Spanish study says it is a myth that regularly eating fried food can lead to cardiac complications, provided fresh olive oil or sunflower oil is used. Well, fried food is part of many traditional Indian delicacies; and the use of sunflower oil for cooking too is quite common.

The study says what really matters is the type of oil used and whether or not it was used before. Food fried in olive or sunflower oil is not linked to heart disease or premature death, but the same is not true of solid or reused oils.

Fried food that is part of modern, American-style takeaways is different as it is cooked in reused oils, rich in transfats. Such foodstuff also tends to contain much more salt, known to increase blood pressure and heart disease risk.

Jyothi Prasad, chief dietician at Manipal Hospital, says: “Olive oil contains mono-saturated fat and sunflower oil has poly-saturated fat—and both are not harmful to the heart. Thus fresh food fried with olive or sunflower oil doesn’t have any negative effect on cardiac health.”

However, it is advisable to have fried food at home rather than outside, as you can never be sure of the oil quality and if the oil was reused with a high content of transfat, Jyothi cautioned. Also, buying packed fried food from a reliable brand that claims ‘zero-transfat’ is safe, she added.

But beware. As it is said, too much of anything is bad, even if it is food fried in olive oil, says Sheela Krishnaswamy, diet consultant and director, Board of International Confederation of Dietetic Associations. “The Spanish use olive oil as it suits the traditional Mediterranean diet. Moreover, not having cardiac complications is not just related to having fried food, but about having a Mediterranean diet, which is healthy. Even the traditional Indian diet is healthy. But we have shifted to more of an American diet, along with adopting a sedentary lifestyle and stress that is aggravating cardiac complications among Indians,” she says.

Moreover, eating a large quantity of fried food, irrespective of the type of oil it is fried in, is not good for cardiac health, says Sheela. “Also, excessive fried food intake leads to weight gain, which itself is a risk factor for diabetes and cardiac complications,” she says.

About the study
While eating lots of fried food can increase some heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity, a link between fried food and heart disease was not been fully investigated. So the study authors, led by Pilar Guallar-Castillón professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, surveyed the cooking methods of 40,757 adults aged 29 to 69 years over an 11-year period. None of them had heart disease when the study began, the journal bmj.com reported.

Trained interviewers asked participants about their diet and cooking methods. Fried food was defined as food for which frying was the only cooking method used. Questions were also asked about whether food was fried, battered, crumbed or sautéed.

The participants’ diet was divided into ranges of fried food consumption, the first quarter related to the lowest amount of fried food consumed and the fourth indicated the highest amount.

During the follow-up there were 606 events linked to heart disease and 1,134 deaths. The authors conclude “In a Mediterranean country where olive and sunflower oils are the most commonly used fats for frying, and where large amounts of fried foods are consumed both at and away from home, no association was observed between fried food consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease or death.”

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement