Living near fast food joints and pubs is bad for your heart

Living near fast food restaurants, as well as pubs, is associated with a higher risk of heart failure, according to research into the impact of a person’s food environment. — dpa

While anyone who wants to stay fit knows to go easy on the booze and fries, it turns out keeping such temptations at a literal distance is key to a healthy heart.

Living within a 15-minute walk of pubs and fast food outlets is associated with a greater risk of heart failure, going by health data covering half a million people in the United Kingdom.

“Compared with those with no exposure to composite ready-to-eat food environments, participants in the highest density score category had a 16% higher risk of [heart failure],” the United States-based researchers said, after assessing information from the UK Biobank, a decades-old database of health records.

People who lived where there was a high density of 11 or more fast food outlets within a kilometre of home appeared to be more susceptible to developing heart failure.

While the team said the findings, which were published by the American Heart Association (AHA), were to be expected, they highlight the need for doctors and nutritionists to pay more attention to the “food environment”.

“Most previous research on the relation between nutrition and human health has been focused on food quality, while neglecting the impact of food environment,” said Tulane University epidemiology department professor Dr Lu Qi.

Prof Lu’s team found the association to be seemingly “stronger among people who did not have a college degree and those living in urban areas without access to facilities for physical activity such as gyms or fitness centres.”

A study published in mid-2023 and based on health data of over 700,000 Americans pointed to excess fast food and alcohol in middle age as causes of premature death, but added that lack of exercise was at least as bad for health as overindulging. – dpa