It has long been known that the foods we eat affect not only physical health, but also mental abilities, and also generally affect brain health. For example, people who follow a Mediterranean diet are less likely to suffer from Alzheimer's disease. At the same time, poor nutrition, especially fatty and sugary foods, impairs mental abilities, such as learning ability. A recent study has found that the harm some foods may cause to the brain may be even more serious than previously thought. Their consumption, even from time to time, leads to irreversible memory impairment.
Harmful products irreversibly impair memory
What products destroy memory
< p>In the study, scientists fed rats a diet consisting of foods high in fat and sugar. The age of the animals ranged from 26 to 56 days, which corresponds to human adolescence, when the brain is actively developing and undergoing certain changes. The second, control group of rats ate exclusively healthy food.
At the end of the experiment, scientists assessed the mental abilities of rodents from both groups. As a result, it turned out that rats that ate junk food could not identify new objects in the arena, which they had carefully studied several days ago. They also could not recognize a familiar object if it was displaced or moving. The rats from the second group did not have such memory problems. Researchers report this in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity.
Consumption of fatty and sweet foods led to memory loss in rats
The scientists then fed the rats in the first group healthy food for 30 days. By this time, the age of the rodents already corresponded to adulthood. However, their memory problems did not disappear. This suggests that consuming foods high in simple sugars and saturated fats leads to permanent memory impairment.
It must be said that this is not the first work with such results. Previous studies have also shown that rats that eat junk food develop memory problems that don't go away. Additionally, there are studies that indicate that eating foods rich in sugar and fat can impair appetite control and lead to obesity. Obesity, in turn, also leads to impaired mental abilities, which we talked about earlier.
Why fatty and sweet foods impair brain function
Further research showed that in rats that consumed unhealthy food, the level of a protein responsible for transporting the neurotransmitter acetylcholine to the hippocampus, that is, to the part of the brain that is responsible for memories, including spatial information, has decreased. Due to these changes, acetylcholine signaling was disrupted in animals.
After switching to healthy food, the rats’ memory did not improve
Then scientists gave rats with poor memory drugs that contributed to normalization acetylcholine signaling. As expected, the rats' memory was restored after this. As scientists explain, acetylcholine signaling is a mechanism involved in encoding and remembering events. This mechanism works in the same way in humans.
Of course, it is not yet possible to say with one hundred percent certainty that the consumption of fatty and sweet foods leads to the same consequences in people. However, the animal body is somewhat different. However, it is highly likely that when people consume unhealthy food, their memory also deteriorates. In addition, as mentioned above, previous studies have already shown that junk food negatively affects the brain.
It's especially important for teenagers to eat healthy for brain health
But, researchers report , they still have questions that have yet to be answered. For example, a high-fat, sugary diet in early adolescence had long-term effects on memory in males, but not females. That is, when the females started eating healthy food, their memory was restored.
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Therefore, it is still difficult to accurately assess how consumption of fatty and sweet foods in adolescence affects memory in adulthood. But, in any case, this is a reason to think about giving up junk food. In addition, it is harmful not only to the brain, but also to physical health. True, giving up sweet and fatty foods can be difficult. We have already told you that they cause addiction in humans.