How comforting is comfort food?

French fries and other fried foods have been linked to depression, a new study finds.

The results of a new study may cause you to think twice before heading to the drive-thru for a fried pick-me-up. 

According to a research team in Hangzhou, China, frequent consumption of fried foods, especially fried potatoes, was associated with a 12% higher risk of anxiety and a 7% higher risk of depression than in people who didn’t eat fried foods, CNN reported. According to the study, the risk is exceptionally high for young men.

The research, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal, analyzed 140,728 people in a little over 11 years.

In that time frame, 8,294 cases of anxiety and 12,735 cases of depression were diagnosed and fried potatoes in particular were linked to a 2% increase in the risk of depression compared with fried white meat. The study also found a potentially higher risk in young men because they were more likely to consume more than one serving of fried food at a greater rate than women. 

The culprit in fried foods, according to the evaluation, is the chemical, acrylamide, which forms during the frying process, especially in potatoes. “We demonstrated that long-term exposure to acrylamide induces anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors,” researchers said.

The chemical doesn’t just have that sort of impact on humans. Researchers further cited a different study examining how acrylamide affected zebrafish, which had similar results. Scientists observed that long-term exposure to the chemical caused the fish to stay in dark areas of their tanks, a reportedly common sign of anxiety in the sea creature. The zebrafish, known to form schools among their species, also stopped showing an interest in exploring their tanks and socializing.  

In addition to potentially impacting mental health, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry notes that acrylamide has “caused several types of cancer in animals” and is “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.” According to the American Cancer Society, Black people have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial-ethnic group in the United States for most cancers.

One should note that health professionals caution against taking the study results as the end all and be all. Dr. Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who was not involved with the research, told CNN that the results are “very preliminary.” 

Dr. David Katz, a lifestyle medicine specialist and founder of the nonprofit True Health Initiative — who also had no involvement with the study — suggested a chicken-or-the-egg dilemma to CNN.

There’s a possibility that fried foods were the direct cause of anxiety and depression or perhaps “people experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety turned to fried foods” as “a way of self-medicating.” 

However, Katz concluded that “overall diet quality, and the selection of wholesome foods, matters profoundly to every aspect of health — mental and physical alike.”

TheGrio Lifestyle reporter Kay Wicker contributed to this article.

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