Diet in the development of intelligence is vital and has already been confirmed by various studies whose conclusions put on the table that the intake of a greater quantity of processed foods during the first three years of life led to lower IQs than those that they had eaten plenty of fresh food.
Now, a new study carried out by a team of scientists from Oregon State University (USA) expands this information by stating that diets high in fat or sugars cause changes in certain intestinal bacteria related to loss valuable of “cognitive flexibility” , that is, the mental capacity that we have to change our thoughts around several different concepts and think about multiple evaluations simultaneously.
The researchers also showed that this negative consequence for our cognitive functioning is further aggravated with diets high in sugar , since sugar caused an impairment of early learning in children, both in short-term memory and in memory. long term memory.
The alteration of the microbiome (made up of about 100 trillion bacteria) seems to be the common nexus of this deficiency in cognitive function, according to the experiment carried out with laboratory mice that were fed different types of diet and subsequently subjected to several tests to record the possible changes in their physical and mental functions in relation to the diet that each group of rodents had followed.
With just 4 weeks on a high-fat or high-sugar diet , the mice began to lose efficacy in both tests, compared to those on a healthy diet.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that gut bacteria can communicate with the human brain: These bacteria can release compounds that act as neurotransmitters, stimulate sensory nerves or the immune system, and affect a wide range of biological functions. We are still not sure exactly how these messages are sent, but we are following them for their effects ”, explain the authors of the work.
The study has been published in the journal Neuroscience .
