What happens to your body if you eat takeout too often?

What happens to your body if you eat takeout too often?

New evidence shows how frequent takeout meals increase diet-related inflammation and silently reshape key metabolic risk factors. This underscores why reducing frequent takeout eating habits can significantly improve long-term heart and metabolic health.

A recent study published inFood Science and Nutritionexamines the association between diet-induced inflammation, cardiometabolic risk, and take-out food intake.

Increasing cardiometabolic burden worldwide

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Their prevalence has increased in recent decades. In many parts of the world, deaths from cardiovascular disease are higher than those from cancer or chronic lower respiratory diseases.

In the United States, the burden of cardiovascular death and disability has risen sharply over the past decade. Even more important is the demographic shift in cardiometabolic risk factors towards younger people. This is due to the interaction of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors. Preventative strategies should focus on lifestyle factors that are modifiable and provide a cost-effective and scalable approach.

Growth in takeaway food consumption

These factors include the increasing consumption of takeaway food worldwide, particularly among young and middle-aged adults. This phenomenon, observed more frequently in the last decade, is explained by the extreme palatability, convenience, intensive marketing and time or craft constraints at the consumer level that exclude home cooking. Thus, takeaway food shapes the ethos of the family, the economy and urban life.

High takeaway food consumption is associated with increased cardiometabolic risk in younger adults. Due to its high calorie and low nutrient properties as well as the lack of fruit and vegetable content, it promotes obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.

Diet-related inflammation and CVD links

Chronic low-level inflammation, reflecting repeated immune activation, is central to CVD pathology. The typical Western diet is high in fat and drives up inflammatory biomarkers, in contrast to the Mediterranean diet and similar dietary habits, which are rich in fish and vegetables.

Diet-induced inflammation is a major cause of cardiovascular disease as it triggers systemic inflammation and promotes the formation of atherosclerotic plaques and thrombosis. This led to the development of the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), which quantifies the likelihood of inflammation associated with the intake of certain dietary components.

Interestingly, cardiovascular disease deaths and disability burden increased significantly in the US around 2010, when food delivery apps began to dominate the global scene. While this does not mean that these events are causally related, it does indicate that further research is needed.

Rationale for examining takeaway food

However, there is little evidence linking takeout and diet-related inflammation. Such findings are essential to recommend dietary changes for young and middle-aged people to promote lifelong cardiovascular health.

The current study therefore examined take-away food consumption as a modifiable eating behavior and provides supporting evidence for public health policy. The aim was to determine associations between frequency of takeaway food consumption and total DII while adjusting the energy content of different diets. We also examined how consumption of takeaway foods is related to key cardiometabolic risk factors and tested whether DII plays an intermediate role in this association. The analysis also examined two other metabolic mediators, cardiac metabolic index (CMI) and visceral adiposity index (VAI).

Additionally, the scientists examined associations with mortality using dietary inflammatory index and take-out food consumption, not ultra-processed food intake.

Study results from the NHANES cohort

The study used data from 8,556 participants in the 2009-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), documenting their take-out food consumption, diet-related inflammatory index, and cardiometabolic risk, and examining the associations between them. About 61% of men and 39% of women consumed takeout food most often.

Those with the highest consumption rates generally had worse health indicators, lower good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, similar total cholesterol, higher fasting blood glucose levels and were less likely to be smokers. Conversely, they were more likely to have higher income, greater weight and height, higher insulin levels, and insulin resistance.

Inflammatory profiles and nutrient shifts

Interestingly, DII was higher with lower consumption of takeaway food and vice versa. However, this reflected unadjusted baseline patterns; In the fully adjusted models, higher take-out intake was associated with higher energy-adjusted DII. The group with a higher take-away food intake had higher levels of several dietary components, particularly polyunsaturated and saturated fats, while alcohol, vitamins B6 and E, and some trace minerals decreased.

Weighted logistic or linear regression analyzes showed that consuming takeout food six times per week or more was associated with a higher energy-adjusted dietary inflammatory index (DII) than once per week or less. There was a significant increase (β = 0.226). The increase was particularly noticeable among 60 to 80 year olds.

Previous research has shown an 8% increase in cardiovascular disease and mortality for a one point increase in DII.

Cardiometabolic risks and mortality trends

Higher consumption of takeaway food was associated with negative cardiometabolic risk. HDL levels were lower while triglycerides increased. Fasting glucose, serum insulin, and insulin resistance all showed an upward trend. The increase was more noticeable in women, suggesting that female metabolism is more responsive to takeout.

Despite a positive trend, mortality rates did not increase significantly with higher takeaway food consumption. Conversely, higher DII was associated with higher all-cause mortality, with a positive trend for deaths due to heart disease. However, the effect was modest.

Implications for public health strategies

The study points to the possible long-term negative effects of eating takeout food. Because this is a cross-sectional observational study, causality needs to be determined through future work. This should also include longitudinal dietary recall and carefully reviewed vascular outcomes.

Measures to address this growing risk could include:

• Verbraucherbildung
• Richtige und deutlich sichtbare Kennzeichnung von Ernährungsprodukten und Lieferplattformen, insbesondere wenn es sich um ungesunde Lebensmittel handelt
• Standardisierung der Essensbeschaffung in Institutionen
• Förderung der Verfügbarkeit, Zugänglichkeit und Erschwinglichkeit gesünderer Mahlzeiten, statt generelle Verbote für Essen zum Mitnehmen

General conclusions about nutrition and inflammation

More frequent consumption of takeout foods is associated with higher energy-related inflammation and negative cardiometabolic risk. “Reducing high-frequency TFC and lowering dietary inflammatory potential may improve cardiometabolic health at a population level.”

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