Genes affect fried food risk
Wednesday March 19th, 2014
Genes may play a role in determining whether fried food makes someone fat, researchers reveal today.
Obesity
is known to be linked to genetics, but needs a certain type of food environment
in order to develop. The increasing rate of obesity is often blamed on
changes in lifestyle, but Professor Lu Qi of Harvard Medical School, Boston,
USA, and colleagues say that the body's response to food varies according
to genes.
The report comes the day after a major British study raised doubts about the impact of fats and oils in food on heart health.
The researchers looked at the interactions between genes and consumption of fried food in relation to body mass index (BMI) and obesity, using figures on 9,623 women and 6,379 men from two large follow-up studies. Further details on 21,421 women from a separate study were also used.
Analysis of eating behaviour and 32 BMI-associated genes showed "an interaction between fried food consumption and a genetic risk score".
Those in the top third for genetic risk, based on the variants of the 32 genes, tended to carry more weight for the same intake of fried food than those in the bottom third of genetic risk.
Among participants with the greater genetic risk, those who ate fried foods four or more times a week had a BMI of 1 point (women) and 0.7 points (men) higher than those who ate fried foods less than once a week. Whereas the weight gain for participants with the lowest genetic risk was roughly halved - 0.5 BMI points for women and 0.4 for men, compared with those who ate fried foods less than once a week.
The results show that fried food can have twice as big an effect on weight for those with the highest genetic risks. Details appear in today's (19 March) British Medical Journal.
Qi, Q. et al. Fried food consumption, genetic risk, and body mass index: gene-diet interaction analysis in three US cohort studies. BMJ 19 March 2014; doi: 10.1136/bmj.g1610 [abstract]
Tags: Diet & Food | Genetics | North America
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