Until now, we knew that if we cheated a bit sometimes in the diet, it could do just fine, because we reduce the stress of depriving ourselves of delicacies. Should we eat a few cookies on the weekend, white-flour baked goods every Friday, or ice cream when the sun is shining on Saturday? It’s okay, we can focus on a healthy diet with renewed vigor from Monday – we read in the magazines. But recent research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has shown that unhealthy eating, even if not regularly, can have a negative impact on brain function and gut health.
Experiments with rats revealed that the rodents, despite eating mostly healthy diets that sometimes received foods high in sugar and saturated fat, experienced significant cognitive impairment, particularly in the area of spatial memory, and had negative changes in gut composition. bacteria.
Your mind is what you eat
says University of New South Wales neuroscientist Margaret Morris
The tests are important because they can help prevent cognitive decline in old age.
Earlier research By the way, they actually found a connection between poor diet and long-term memory damage. It turns out that a diet high in fat and sugar can reduce the size and function of the hippocampus region of the brain, which is essential for learning and memory.
In the new rodent experiments, they replaced processed food high in fat and sugar with a healthy diet, then tested the mice’s short-term memory and examined their stool microbiome.
Mice fed an unhealthy diet for even a short period of time had a less diverse gut microbiome.
And, of course, the longer the harmful diet lasts, the worse the condition of the intestinal microflora. The bacteria associated with obesity multiplied, and cognitive impairment became more severe over time: Mice fed unhealthy food for several days performed worse on memory tests.
Our analyzes showed that the level of two types of bacteria correlated with the degree of memory impairment
said Mike Kindig, a researcher at the University of New South Wales.
This suggests that the effects on gut health and memory are not related to obesity (from an unhealthy diet), but to a diet that increases inflammation, which impairs brain function and leads to cognitive deficits. As Margaret Morris commented:
Changes in the microbiome that occur as a result of diet affect our brains and behavior.
In other words, a healthy diet has a positive effect on the intestinal tract and brain condition.
If we can get used to a healthy diet, for example the Mediterranean diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, less fat content and good proteins, we can successfully maintain brain alertness and cognitive functions even in old age.
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