Frying food is ‘not a heart disease risk’

FRYING food in olive or sunflower oil does not increase the risk of heart disease or early death, researchers say.

The study goes against the idea that frying food is generally bad for the heart, but experts said this “does not mean that frequent meals of fish and chips will have no health consequences”.

A team drawn from research centres, universities and hospitals in Spain analysed data from almost 41,000 adults aged 29 to 69 who did not have heart disease at the start of the study.

People were asked about food consumed in a typical week during the previous 12 months, with foods consumed at least twice a month recorded. Fried foods included those that were deep fried or pan fried.

During an 11-year follow-up, there were just over 600 “coronary heart disease events” such as heart attacks and just over 1,100 people died from any cause.

Writing online in the British Medical Journal, the experts said: “In a Mediterranean country where olive and sunflower oils are the most commonly used fats for frying, and where large amounts of fried foods are consumed both at and away from home, no association was observed between fried food consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease or death.”