Eating fried foods carries increased CVD hazard

Individuals who eat fried foods risk developing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), a study suggests.

The study was based on a meta-analysis of 17 studies (four case-control, 12 cohort, and one nested case-control) involving 562,445 participants and 36,727 major adverse cardiovascular events. Six cohort studies examined the association of fried-food consumption with all-cause mortality (754,873 participants and 85,906 deaths), with a median follow-up of 9.5 years.

According to the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale score, about half of the studies had good quality while the others had fair quality.

Pooled data showed that the highest versus lowest fried-food intake was associated with an elevated risk of major cardiovascular events (relative risk [RR], 1.28, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.15–1.43; n=17; I², 82.0 percent), coronary heart disease (RR, 1.22, 95 percent CI, 1.07–1.40; n=11; I², 77.9 percent), stroke (RR, 1.37, 95 percent CI, 0.97–1.94; n=4; I², 80.7 percent), heart failure (RR, 1.37, 95 percent CI, 1.07–1.75; n=4; I², 80.0 percent), cardiovascular mortality (RR, 1.02, 95 percent CI, 0.93–1.14; n=3; I², 27.3 percent), and all-cause mortality (RR, 1.03, 95 percent CI, 95 percent CI, 0.96–1.12; n=6; I², 38.0 percent).

In the dose–response analyses, the associations were linear for major cardiovascular events, coronary heart disease, and heart failure. Specifically, the respective RRs associated with each additional fried-food serving/week were 1.03 (95 percent CI, 1.01–1.04; I², 75.6 percent; p_{heterogeneity}<0.001), 1.02 (95 percent CI, 1.01–1.02; I², 0; p_{heterogeneity}=0.726), and 1.12 (95 percent CI, 1.01–1.23; I², 91.6 percent; p_{heterogeneity}<0.001).

These findings may have important implications for guideline recommendations regarding the adverse effects of eating fried foods on CVD.