--- title: Fast Food May Hurt Your Immune System, And Could Hurt Your Kids, Too description: Poor dietary habits get passed down in DNA and can affect children's tastes and behaviors canonical: https://time.com/2941167/fast-food-may-hurt-immune-system/ author: Abby Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-30T20:09:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:54:12.111Z article:section: Health og:title: Fast Food May Hurt Your Immune System, And Could Hurt Your Kids, Too og:description: Poor dietary habits get passed down in DNA and can affect children's tastes and behaviors og:url: https://time.com/2941167/fast-food-may-hurt-immune-system/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fast Food May Hurt Your Immune System, And Could Hurt Your Kids, Too twitter:description: Poor dietary habits get passed down in DNA and can affect children's tastes and behaviors twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Processed Food Hurts Your Immune System—And Your Kids' Too by [Abby Abrams](https://time.com/author/abby-abrams/) ## Abby Abrams Jun 30, 2014 8:09 PM UTC by [Abby Abrams](https://time.com/author/abby-abrams/) ## Abby Abrams Jun 30, 2014 8:09 PM UTC Society’s over-indulgence on foods full of sugar, salt and fat may be ruining our immune systems, a new study says. A study published in [_Nutrition Journal_ ](http://www.nutritionj.com/content/pdf/1475-2891-13-61.pdf)looked at the impact the Western diet and lifestyle has on people’s immune function. It found that the large number of calories in processed and fast food may lead to health problems such as increased inflammation, reduced control of infection, increased rates of cancer, and increased risk for allergic and auto-inflammatory disease. And we’re not only harming ourselves. The study authors point to research that poor dietary choices get “encoded” into both DNA scaffolding and into the gut microbiome, meaning that food and lifestyle choices can permanently change the balance of bacteria in our bodies and can weaken the immune system. It also means those changes can be passed onto offspring. The study’s author, Dr. Ian Myles, says he was surprised by how heavily gut bacteria determined a child’s health. “Our bodies are a kind of mini-ecosystem, and anything that disturbs our bacteria can alter our health in profound ways,” he adds. Myles, a doctor at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the only way for people to avoid these immune effects is to improve their diets. “Things that most people know—but do not feel confident in their ability to accomplish right now: eliminate processed sugars, eliminating homogenized fats,” he said. “I always tell people there’s a big difference between fat in a piece of fish or meat, and eating fat as a part of processed foods.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2941167/fast-food-may-hurt-immune-system/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2941167/fast-food-may-hurt-immune-system/"},"headline":"Processed Food Hurts Your Immune System—And Your Kids' Too","datePublished":"2014-06-30T20:09:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:54:12.111Z","description":"Poor dietary habits get passed down in DNA","url":"https://time.com/2941167/fast-food-may-hurt-immune-system/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Disease","Fast Food","allergies","immune system"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abby Abrams","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/abby-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2941167/fast-food-may-hurt-immune-system/","name":"Processed Food Hurts Your Immune System—And Your Kids' Too"}}]}] ```