7 Reasons to Avoid Greasy Food – Healthline

Greasy foods are not only found at fast food joints but also workplaces, restaurants, schools, and even your home.

Most foods that are fried or cooked with excess oils are considered greasy. They include french fries, potato chips, deep-dish pizzas, onion rings, cheeseburgers, and doughnuts.

These items tend to be high in calories, fat, salt, and refined carbs but low in fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

While they can be an enjoyable treat on special occasions, greasy foods negatively affect your body and health in both the short and long term.

Here are 7 effects of greasy foods on your body.

Among the macronutrients carbs, fat, and protein fat is the most slowly digested (1).

Because greasy foods contain high amounts of fat, they slow stomach emptying. In turn, food spends more time in your stomach, which can cause bloating, nausea, and stomach pain (2).

In people with digestive complaints, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic pancreatitis, or a stomach bug, high levels of fatty foods may trigger stomach pain, cramping, and diarrhea (1).

Greasy meals delay stomach emptying and may cause bloating, nausea, and stomach pain. In people with certain digestive conditions, these foods may worsen symptoms like cramping and diarrhea.

Greasy foods are known to harm the healthy bacteria that live in your gut.

This collection of microorganisms, also called the gut microbiome, affects the following:

A high fat diet, such as one rich in greasy foods, may damage your gut microbiome by increasing the number of unhealthy gut bacteria and decreasing the number of healthy ones (13).

These changes may be associated with obesity and other chronic illnesses, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Parkinsons disease (13).

All the same, further research on diet and gut health is needed.

Unhealthy, greasy foods can disturb the balance of bacteria in your gut, allowing unhealthy strains to grow. This is linked to weight gain and numerous chronic diseases.

Greasy foods, which are cooked in large amounts of fat, may cause weight gain due to their high calorie count.

For example, a small baked potato (3.5 ounces or 100 grams) contains 93 calories and 0.1 grams of fat, while the same amount of french fries packs 312 calories and 15 grams of fat (14, 15).

Observational studies link a high intake of fried and fast foods to increased rates of weight gain and obesity (16, 17, 18).

Obesity is associated with many negative health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and certain cancers (19, 20).

In particular, a high intake of trans fat may cause weight gain.

Trans fats are formed when vegetable oils are chemically altered to stay solid at room temperature. Despite regulations on their use, theyre still found in many greasy foods due to the use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in frying and food processing.

Animal studies note that trans fats may lead to small increases in weight even without excess calorie intake (21, 22).

Additionally, an 8-year study in 41,518 women determined that those with excess weight gained an additional 2.3 pounds (1 kg) for every 1% increase in their trans fat intake (23).

Although other studies havent backed up this finding, regularly eating greasy foods is likely to hamper weight control (24).

Greasy foods are high in calories, excess fats, and trans fats, all of which can lead to weight gain and obesity.

Greasy foods have several negative effects on heart health.

For example, fried foods have been shown to increase blood pressure, lower HDL (good) cholesterol, and lead to weight gain and obesity, all of which are associated with heart disease (17, 25, 26).

For example, research reveals that potato chips increase inflammation and may contribute to heart disease (27).

Furthermore, your risk of heart disease may be linked to how frequently you eat fried foods (28).

One study found that women who ate 1 or more servings of fried fish per week had a 48% higher risk of heart failure than those who ate just 13 servings per month (29).

In another study, people who ate 2 or more servings of fried fish per week had a 63% higher risk of heart attack or stroke than those who ate 1 or fewer servings per month (30).

Additionally, a large observational study in 6,000 people across 22 countries associated eating fried foods, pizza, and salty snacks with a 16% increased risk of stroke (31).

Greasy foods may increase your risk of heart disease and stroke due to their effects on weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol.

Greasy foods may increase your risk of type 2 diabetes (32).

Consuming fast food, which includes not only greasy foods but also sugary drinks, leads to high calorie intake, weight gain, poor blood sugar control, and increased inflammation (33).

In turn, these factors boost your risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome a group of conditions that includes obesity, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar (33).

For example, a large observational study found that eating fried foods 13 times per week increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 15% but 7 or more instances per week increased the risk by 55% (28).

Another study found that people who ate fast food more than two times per week had twice the chance of developing insulin resistance, which can be a precursor to diabetes, compared with those who ate them less than once per week (34).

Eating greasy foods raises your risk of type 2 diabetes by increasing body weight and inflammation, as well as impairing your blood sugar control.

Many people link greasy foods to breakouts and acne.

In fact, studies associate the Western diet, which is rich in refined carbs, fast food, and greasy items, with acne (35, 36).

A study in over 5,000 Chinese teenagers found that regularly eating fried foods increases the risk of acne by 17%. Whats more, another study in 2,300 Turkish teenagers revealed that eating greasy items like sausages and burgers increased acne risk by 24% (37, 38).

However, the exact mechanism behind this effect remains unclear.

Some researchers propose that poor diet can affect gene expression and alter hormone levels in a way that promotes acne (39, 40, 41, 42, 43).

Western diets with a high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids may likewise cause increased inflammation that leads to acne. While omega-3s occur in oily fish, algae, and nuts, omega-6s are found in vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds.

Oils used in frying greasy foods are high in omega-6s and thus may contribute to an imbalance in this ratio (42, 44, 45).

Some greasy foods like fried doughnuts are also high in refined carbs. These are sugars and refined grains that are stripped of their fiber and many nutrients.

Because sugary foods increase the activity of certain hormones in your body including androgens and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) they may promote acne by raising your production of skin cells and natural skin oils (40, 46).

Keep in mind that more research on acnes causes is needed (47).

Greasy foods may contribute to acne by increasing inflammation and altering gene expression and hormone levels.

A diet rich in greasy, fatty foods may cause problems with brain function.

The weight gain, high blood pressure, and metabolic syndrome linked to greasy foods are also associated with damage to your brains structure, tissues, and activity (48, 49, 50).

Two large studies in 5,083 and 18,080 people, respectively, tied diets high in greasy and fried foods to a decline in learning ability and memory, as well as an increase in inflammation (51, 52).

Additionally, diets high in trans fats have been linked to impairments in brain function.

One study in 1,018 adults associated each gram of trans fat eaten per day with worse word recall, indicating memory harm (53).

Furthermore, in a study in 38 women, a higher intake of saturated and trans fats was correlated with poorer word recall and recognition, in addition to poorer performance in spatial tasks (54).

Finally, a review of 12 studies linked trans and saturated fat to dementia risk, although some results were conflicting (55).

Overall, more research is necessary.

Greasy foods may harm your learning and memory, as well as increase your risk of dementia. Yet, further studies are needed.

There are multiple ways to reduce or avoid the intake of greasy foods. These include not only healthier cooking methods but also lifestyle choices.

Greasy foods are often fried, which means that theyre cooked in a lot of oil. Methods that dont use as much oil include:

If you dont want to forego frying entirely, be sure to use a skimmer to let the grease drip off and store the food on a paper towel to soak up the excess fat.

With minimal effort, you can replace fried foods with whole, nutritious options. Here are a few alternatives to common greasy foods:

Oven frying, air frying, steaming, and grilling are all great alternatives to traditional, oil-heavy frying. Additionally, many popular greasy foods are easy to replace with whole, nutritious options.

Greasy foods like fries, chips, pizza, and doughnuts are high in calories and unhealthy fats.

A high intake of these foods can lead to weight gain, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, bloating, diarrhea, acne, and impaired brain function.

While its perfectly acceptable to enjoy fried foods on special occasions, you should try to limit your intake and choose healthier alternatives as part of a balanced diet.

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7 Reasons to Avoid Greasy Food - Healthline