Consuming fried food may not be bad for your heart, only if you use olive or sunflower oil to fry that food. When you fry food it becomes more fattening as the food soaks up the fat of the oils. Several studies have shown that eating lots of fat-laden food can increase blood pressure and levels of cholesterol, which are risk factors for heart disease.
For their study, researchers from the Autonomous University of Madrid asked more than forty thousand adults, about their diet. All the study subjects were asked about the types of food they consumed in a typical week and how that food was cooked and prepared.
None of study participants had any sign of heart disease at the start of the study but after completing eleven years of study there occurred six hundred events of heart disease and eleven hundred deaths had takes place. When looking at these heart events in detail, researchers could not find any link with fried food in the diet.
They think this is down to the kind of oil in which the food is cooked in. Mediterranean diets have long been established as healthy, being packed full of low-fat, high-fibre fresh fruits and vegetables, and fresh fish. In addition to that several studies have suggested a balanced diet such as this can slash the risk of heart disease and cancer.
Researchers found no intensifying risk of heart disease or premature death associated with food that had been cooked with olive or sunflower oil. However investigators stress their findings from studying the typical Spanish diet in which these healthy oils are found in abundance, do not apply to lard or other cooking oils. The study was published online in BMJ.
The myth that frying food is generally bad for the heart is not supported by available evidence. But this does not mean that frequent meals of fish and chips will have no health consequences. The study suggests that particular aspects of frying food are relevant, like the oil used, together with other aspects of the diet, stated Professor Michael Leitzmann from the University of Regensburg in Germany.
Apart from cooking methods used, consuming foods with high fat content means a high calorie intake, can lead to weight gain and obesity, which is a risk factor for heart disease. A well-balanced diet, with plenty of fruit and vegetables, is best for a healthy heart, stated Victoria Taylor, a senior heart health dietitian at the British Heart Foundation.