One serving of fried chicken a day linked to 13 per cent higher risk of death in women

A new study on postmenopausal women in the US reveals that a regular serving of fried chicken or fish per day is associated with a higher risk of death from any cause except cancer.

According to the study, women who enjoyed fried chicken once or more per day had a 13 per cent higher risk of death from any cause compared with women who did not eat any fried food, reported CNN.

The study was published Wednesday in the medical journal BMJ and reported that women eating a daily portion of fried fish or shellfish saw a 7 per cent greater risk of death.

According to the authors, limiting consumption of fried foods, in particular fried chicken and fish could be good for public health.

Speaking about it, lead author of the study Wei Bao said, "We know fried food consumption is something very common in the United States and also around the world. Unfortunately, we know very little about long-term health effect of fried food consumption."

The observational study is the first of its kind in the US that takes a look at the relationship between fried food consumption and mortality, Bao added.

Previous research has shown links between higher consumption of fried foods and an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

According to a 2017 study, people who eat fried potatoes two or more times a week double their risk of an early death compared with those who avoid them.

Bao's team looked at the food habits of almost 1,07,000 women between the ages of 50 and 79 from 40 clinics across the United States between 1993 and 1998. They found women eating one or more servings of fried food a day had an 8 per cent higher risk of death from all causes as well as heart-related death compared with those who did not eat fried food. However, this finding was not statistically significant, the study added.

More specifically, eating fried chicken had a 13 per cent greater risk of death and 12 per cent increased risk of a heart-related death. For fried fish, the rise in risk of death and heart-related death was 7 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively.

But there was no link between total or specific fried food consumption and cancer deaths, the study found.

Fried food's link to health outcomes is the combined effect from the food itself and the frying process, Bao explained.

The rise in risk could be down to a number of reasons, according to the study. One possibility is that these foods could be ultraprocessed, according to the authors, meaning they may be high in sodium, which could contribute to a higher risk of mortality.