Eating popular fast food like burgers, nachos and hot dogs three times a week raises the risk of deadly asthma by causing inflammation in the airways, study finds
- Indulging in fast food raises the risk of having four or more asthma attacks a year
- Fast food also makes people more at risk of hay fever, eczema and wheezing
- Lack of nutrients in the food causes inflammation, particularly if no fresh food
- Asthma affects more than five million people in the UK and kills three a day
- In the US, the lung condition causes on average 10 fatalities every day
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Eating popular fast food like burgers, nachos and hot dogs three times a week significantly raises people’s risk of severe asthma, new research suggests.
Regularly indulging in the fast-food staple increases the risk of sufferers having four or more asthma attacks a year, a Chinese study found.
Mass produced food also makes people more likely to suffer from hay fever, eczema, nasal congestion and wheezing, which is one of the main symptoms of asthma, the research adds.
The lack of nutrients in such food is thought to cause inflammation in the airways, particularly if it replaces the consumption of healthy produce such as fruit and vegetables.
Asthma affects more than five million people in the UK and kills three a day. The condition causes 10 fatalities a day in the US.
Eating burgers three times a week significantly raises people’s risk of severe asthma (stock)
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DO CHILDHOOD CHEST INFECTIONS RAISE THE RISK OF ASTHMA?
Having a chest infection as a child raises a person’s risk of asthma by up to four times, research suggested in September 2017.
Suffering from a lower-respiratory tract infection, such as bronchitis or pneumonia, before the age of five increases an individual’s likelihood of developing the lung condition by between two and four times, a study found.
An upper-respiratory tract infection, including a cold or tonsillitis, raises the risk by 1.5 times.
Study author Dr Evelien van Meel from the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, said: ‘These findings support the hypothesis that early-life respiratory tract infections may influence the development of respiratory illnesses in the longer term.
‘In particular, lower-respiratory tract infections in early life seem to have the greatest adverse effect on lung function and the risk of asthma.’
The researchers analysed 154,492 European children born between 1989 and 2013.
Children were included in the study if respiratory-tract infection information was available from when they were aged between six months and five years old.
Follow-up periods ranged from four to 15 years.
Lung function was assessed by measuring the amount of air that the study’s participants could forcibly exhale after maximum inhalation and how much they could breathe out in the first second.
How the research was carried out
The researchers, from Sichuan University, analysed 16 studies that assessed the link between fast food and asthma, allergies and wheeze.
Fast food was generally defined as preheated ingredients served in a restaurant or shop that is given to customers in take-away packaging.
Participants were asked if they take asthma medication. The condition was considered severe if they were woken by wheeze more than four times in the past year.
Allergies were defined by sneezing, or having a blocked or runny nose, without a cold or flu in the past year. It was severe if people had itchy or watery eyes, or if their daily activities were affected.
Having an itchy rash in the past year defined eczema, with severe cases being those that disturbed sleep at least once a week.
The findings were published in the journal Respirology.
Britons have the worst diet in Europe
This comes after research released last January suggested Britons have the worst diet in Europe.
More than half of the food found in the average Briton’s household is highly-processed, which is driving the obesity epidemic and putting people at risk of heart disease and strokes, a study by the University of São Paulo found.
Processed food consumption, such as eating ready meals, biscuits and salami, in the UK is five times higher than in Portugal and nearly four times greater than in France, Greece or Italy, the research adds.
The researchers also found that for every one per cent increase in processed food availability in people’s homes, the risk of obesity rises by 0.25 per cent.
Around 24.5 per cent of adults in the UK are obese, compared to 7.1 per cent in France, 8.2 per cent in Italy, 13.4 per cent in Greece and 15.2 per cent in Portugal.
Described as a ‘public health disaster zone’, the researchers are urging for highly-processed foods to be made less available and affordable via taxes.
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