What happens to your body when you eat takeaway food too often?

By Dr. Liji Thomas, MDReviewed by Lauren HardakerDec 11 2025

New evidence reveals how frequent takeaway meals elevate dietary inflammation and quietly reshape key metabolic risk factors, underscoring why reducing high-frequency takeaway habits could meaningfully improve long-term heart and metabolic health.

Study: Takeaway Food Consumption, Dietary Inflammatory Index, and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in US Adults: Findings From NHANES (2009–2018). Image Credit: New Africa / Shutterstock

A recent study published in Food Science & Nutrition explores the relationship between dietary inflammation, cardiometabolic risk, and takeaway food intake.

Rising Cardiometabolic Burden Worldwide

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major worldwide killer and cause of disability. Its prevalence has been rising over the last few decades. Deaths from CVD are higher than those from cancer or chronic lower respiratory disease in many parts of the world.

In the US, the burden of CVD deaths and disability has risen steeply over the last decade. Even more important is the demographic shift in cardiometabolic risk factors towards younger people. This stems from the interaction of genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. Preventive strategies should focus on lifestyle factors, which are modifiable, offering a cost-effective and scalable approach.

Growth in Takeaway Food Consumption

Among these factors is the rising global consumption of takeaway food among young and middle-aged adults, in particular. This phenomenon, observed more commonly over the last decade, is explained by the extreme palatability, convenience, intensive marketing, and time or skill constraints operating at the consumer level, which preclude home cooking. Thus, takeaway food shapes the ethos of family, economics, and urban living.

High takeaway food consumption is linked to increasing cardiometabolic risk in younger adults. It drives obesity, hypertension, and high cholesterol levels because of its calorie-rich, nutrient-poor properties, added to the lack of fruit and vegetable content.

Dietary Inflammation and CVD Links

Chronic low-level inflammation, reflecting repeated immune activation, is central to CVD pathology. The typical Western diet is rich in fat and drives inflammatory biomarkers upward, in contrast to the Mediterranean diet and similar patterns that are enriched in fish and vegetables.

Dietary inflammation is a chief cause of CVD, driving systemic inflammation and promoting the formation of arteriosclerotic plaques and thrombosis. This led to the development of the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), which quantifies the odds of inflammation related to the intake of specific dietary components.

Interestingly, the CVD deaths and disability burden in the US rose markedly around 2010, the year when apps for food delivery began to dominate the global scene. While this does not mean that these events are causally related, it indicates the need for further investigation.

Rationale for Examining Takeaway Food

There is little evidence to support an association between takeaway food and dietary inflammation, however. Such evidence is essential to recommend dietary modifications for young and middle-aged people, promoting lifelong cardiovascular health.

The current study, therefore, examined takeout food consumption as a modifiable eating pattern and provides supporting evidence to inform public health policy. The aim was to assess associations between the frequency of takeout food consumption and overall DII, while adjusting for energy content across diets. It also studied how takeout food consumption correlated with key cardiometabolic risk factors and tested for an intermediary role of DII in this association. The analysis also examined two additional metabolic mediators, the cardiac metabolic index (CMI) and visceral adiposity index (VAI).

Additionally, the scientists explored associations with mortality using the dietary inflammatory index and takeaway food consumption, not ultraprocessed food intake.

Study Results From NHANES Cohort

The study used data from 8,556 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009–2018, documenting their consumption of takeaway food, the dietary inflammation index, and cardiometabolic risk, and examined associations among them. About 61% of males vs 39% of females had the highest frequency of takeout food consumption.

Those with the highest consumption rates generally had poorer health markers, lower good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, similar total cholesterol, higher fasting blood sugar levels, and were less likely to be smokers. Conversely, they were more likely to have higher income, greater weight and height, higher insulin levels, and insulin resistance.

Inflammatory Profiles and Nutrient Shifts

Interestingly, the DII was higher with lower takeaway food consumption, and vice versa. However, this reflected unadjusted baseline patterns; in the fully adjusted models, higher intake of takeaway food was associated with a higher energy-adjusted DII. The group with higher takeaway food intake had higher levels of multiple dietary components, especially polyunsaturated and saturated fats, with alcohol, vitamins B6 and E, and some trace elements decreasing.

Weighted logistic or linear regression analyses showed that consuming takeaway food six times a week or more was associated with a higher energy-adjusted dietary inflammation index (DII) than once a week or less. There was a significant increase (β = 0.226). The increase was especially marked in those aged 60–80 years.

Prior research has indicated an 8% increase in CVD and mortality for a one-point increase in the DII.

Cardiometabolic Risks and Mortality Trends

A higher takeaway food consumption was linked to adverse cardiometabolic risk. HDL levels were lower, while triglycerides went up. Fasting glucose, serum insulin, and insulin resistance all showed an upward trend. The increase was more marked in females, suggesting that female metabolism responds more powerfully to takeaway food.

Despite a positive trend, mortality rates did not increase significantly with higher takeaway food consumption. Conversely, higher DII was associated with higher all-cause mortality, with a positive trend for death from heart disease. The effect was modest, however.

Implications for Public Health Strategies

The study indicates the potential long-term adverse effects of takeaway food consumption. This is a cross-sectional observational study, hence causality remains to be established by future work. This should include longitudinal dietary recall and carefully reviewed vascular outcomes as well.

Measures to counter this growing risk could include:

• Consumer education
• Proper and prominent labeling of nutritional products and delivery platforms, especially when they involve unhealthy foods
• Standardization of meal procurement in institutions
• Promoting the availability, accessibility, and affordability of healthier meal options, rather than placing blanket bans on takeaway food

Overall Conclusions on Diet and Inflammation

More frequent takeaway food consumption is linked to higher energy-adjusted dietary inflammation and adverse cardiometabolic risk. “Reducing high-frequency TFC and lowering dietary inflammatory potential may improve cardiometabolic health at a population level.”