Fatty food can weaken the immune system

Fresh evidence that fatty food is bad for our health has come to light: mice fed a lard-based diet over a long period got worse at fighting bacteria in the blood, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg.

The fed the lard-based diet derived 60 per cent of their total calories from fat. They were compared with mice fed a low-fat diet, where no more than ten per cent of their calories came from fat. As expected, the mice on the high-fat diet got fatter. A more surprising result was that their was less active. The white blood cells got worse at dealing with bacteria in the blood, which could have contributed to many dying of sepsis.

" is usually associated with that does not result from an infection, which simply means that the immune defences are activated unnecessarily," says doctoral student Louise Strandberg who wrote the thesis. "Ironically, the mice on the high-fat diet seem to have a less active immune system when they really need it."

Fat people are also at a greater risk of aquiring infection, for example in connection with an operation. In mice, the thesis shows that it is fatty food rather than obesity in itself which affects the ability to fight off sepsis caused by bacteria.

Strandberg has also investigated different variants of three genes that are important for the immune system and noted that several of the gene variants that strengthen immunity also result in less obesity.

"So there are all kinds of links between the immune system on the one hand and obesity and on the other," says Strandberg.

Source: University of Gothenburg (news : web)

Citation: Fatty food can weaken the immune system (2009, December 8) retrieved 28 March 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2009-12-fatty-food-weaken-immune.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

Researchers uncover 'obesity gene' involved in weight gain response to high-fat diet

 shares

Feedback to editors