A new study from the University of New South Wales, UNSW has proven the damage that so-called junk food (one with a high fat and sugar content) produces . According to their results, even in the short term this food can be harmful, by inflaming a specific region of the brain .
In their test with laboratory rats, they observed that after a week of feeding the rats a diet high in fat and sugar, memory failures occurred in the animals. But what caused this cognitive loss? The researchers noted that animals fed a junk diet had inflammation in the hippocampus region, that part of the brain involved in memory and memory formation and one of the first regions affected by Alzheimer’s.
As Professor Margaret Morris of UNSW pointed out, “ We know that obesity causes inflammation in the body, but we did not realize until recently that it also causes changes in the brain .” In other words, this type of diet does not only affect our figure, but it can also influence our ability to memorize.
In the same study, they indicate that certain aspects of memory were not affected depending on their different diets. For example, all the animals were equally capable of recognizing some objects regardless of the different diets they had eaten. However, differences in the animals’ memory (where the objects were placed) emerged even before weight differences appeared between them.
” What is surprising about this research is the speed with which the deterioration of cognition occurred, ” explains Professor Morris of the School of Medical Sciences. According to these tests carried out with rats, a deterioration of memory was observed within a week. He also notes that “our preliminary data also suggest that the damage is not reversed when rats are switched back to a healthy diet, which is very concerning.” Thus, nutrition affects the brain at any age, but with aging the prevention of cognitive decline becomes more important. In the words of Morris himself, ” an elderly person with a poor diet may be more prone to problems .”
