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 based at the University of Gothenberg in Sweden.
The mice 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 immune system 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.
“Obesity is usually associated with inflammation 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 diet on the other,” says Strandberg.
Managing food selection as well as body mass have potentially direct influences on the immune systems capabilities. Nutrition from a whole food as well as a food concentrates perspective is recognised to have direct impact on body mass and also it seems on the expression of key genes. Genes take thousands of years to change, but environmental pressures can take just a few years. The ongoing expansion of western worlds waist lines will it appears increase our risk of immune related consequences.
2 Comments. Leave new
Hi
Interesting finding, but I would like to see the original paper before accepting this whole-heartedly. For example, can we see what made up the rest of the mices’ diets comprised?
A link to the research would be useful.
All the best
Roger
Hi Roger
This was the work of a PhD thesis and has yet to be published. The key point to take away was that mice were fed a diet high in a low quality fat – Lard. The rest of the diet was not mentioned but will probably be composed of standard mice chow. The paper: Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the Department of Physiology, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy. Title of thesis: Interactions between nutrition, obesity and the immune system may well yet be published so we can find out more.
Michael