Anyone who thinks that the effects of a bad diet are restricted to the waistline is mistaken. A diet rich in fatty and sugary foods causes damage to the brain, which can even persist even after a change in diet.
The conclusion is in recent research published in the scientific journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. In studies with rodents, scientists at the University of Southern California, in the United States, discovered that a diet rich in sugar and saturated fats unbalances a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. The substance is fundamental for the functioning of the nervous system and is involved in learning and memory storage.
“What we noticed in this paper, and in some of our other recent work, is that when mice grow up on a junk food diet, they have memory problems that don’t go away,” said Scott Kanoski, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California. .
How the study was carried out
During the study, researchers fed rats a “junk diet” between 26 and 56 days after birth – a stage compatible with human adolescence, when the brain undergoes significant development. Other rats, in the so-called control group, received healthy food.
Then, during memory tests, the mice that followed the diet of fatty and sugary foods were unable to identify objects in a scene that they had explored days before. Rats in the control group demonstrated better results.
It also caught the researchers’ attention that these memory problems persisted even when the group fed on junk food switched to healthy food for 30 days, a time equivalent to adult life.
“Acetylcholine signaling is a mechanism to help them encode and remember these events, analogous to ‘episodic memory’ in humans, which allows us to remember events from our past,” explains lead author and nutrition researcher Anna Hayes. “This signal does not appear to be happening in animals that grew up eating a fatty, sugary diet.”
The researchers recognize that there are limitations to the study and that the results should not simply be extrapolated to humans, but they reaffirm the importance of this new area of study on food and the brain.
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Keeping the brain active with stimulating activities is one of the main strategies that help with memory. See tips on what to do!
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It is important that memory care is daily. So, before going to sleep, try to remember the activities you did throughout the day.
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***Puzzle
Practice specific memory exercises, such as word games, sudoku, 7 errors, word searches, dominoes, crosswords or putting together a puzzle
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***healthy food eating
Consume foods rich in omega 3, such as sardines, tuna, salmon, chia, flaxseed, chestnuts, walnuts and olive oil. They contain nutrients that facilitate memorization and prevent forgetting
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Using your non-dominant hand to perform activities such as writing, brushing your teeth, leafing through a book or opening a door, for example, can also help with memory.
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Change the route: go to work by different routes than usual, as breaking the routine stimulates the brain to think
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***coffee
Consume caffeinated drinks – sparingly, of course – such as green tea or coffee, to keep your brain alert, making it easier to capture information and memorize it.
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***furniture
Change the location of some objects that you use a lot on a daily basis, such as the trash can and house keys
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****Supermarket
Make a shopping list every time you go to the supermarket, but try not to use it, trying to remember what you wrote
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Take a shower with your eyes closed and try to remember where the items in the room are located
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***conversation
Try reading a book or watching a movie and then telling someone about it. This will stimulate concentration and memory
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