Are "Carry Out" Meals Destroying Your Health? Maybe So!

At the KAHN CENTER, we teach a whole food, plant-based diet and stress simple home cooked meals. For example, several of my books including The Plant Based Solution, Lipoprotein(a), and Vegan Sex contain several hundreds of recipes used widely by my patients and others with glowing comments.

I take a detailed meal history from all of my patients and a very high percentage either pick up meals at the grocery store or a restaurant or use services like Ubereats and GrubHub to have provide convenient pre-made meals. 

A recent study has examined the relationship between "takeaway food consumption" (TFC) and cardiometabolic health and the findings are not favorable for this common habit. TFC has risen in frequency and often reflects energy-dense, nutrient-poor patterns.

STUDY

The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) quantifies diet-related inflammatory potential. The authors tested whether higher TFC aligns with higher DII and adverse cardiometabolic risk factors (CRFs) in US adults, and secondarily with all-cause and heart disease mortality.

Data from 8556 NHANES 2009–2018 participants were analyzed.

RESULTS

 Compared with TFC 0–1/week, those using this service ≥ 6/week were associated with higher energy-adjusted DII, lower HDL-cholesterol, and higher triglycerides.

Incremental increases in TFC were associated with higher fasting glucose, serum insulin, and insulin resistance.

On the other hand, TFC showed no significant mortality associations, whereas higher DII predicted all-cause mortality.

CONCLUSIONS

Frequent TFC is linked to a more pro-inflammatory diet and adverse CRFs. Although TFC alone was not associated with mortality, dietary inflammation predicted increased all-cause mortality, suggesting a potential long-term pathway. Reducing high-frequency TFC and lowering dietary inflammatory potential may improve cardiometabolic health at a population level.

Takeout food varies widely in quality. Dinner carried out from a high-quality restaurant is likely to be nutritionally more sound than a meal grabbed from a fast-food emporium.

Issues with TFC include excess sodium that increases blood volume and arterial stiffness, and unhealthy fats usually saturated fats or trans fats, that increase dyslipidemia and atherosclerosis.

Limiting TFC and re-learning home cooking skills is advised. If a TFC meal is ordered, simple adds like adding leafy greens, colorful fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains like wild rice could further support cardiovascular health and lower the inflammatory potential of the meal.