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https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/ultra-processed-foods-dementia/2022/12/06/id/1099313/
Chips, pizza, cookies: Delicious, but a diet full of ultraprocessed foods like these may contribute to brain deterioration, researchers report.
Ultraprocessed foods have lots of added and unhealthy ingredients, such as sugar, salt, fat, artificial colors, and preservatives. Examples include frozen meals, soft drinks, hot dogs and cold cuts, fast food, packaged cookies, cakes and salty snacks.
These foods have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, metabolic syndrome and obesity.
Now, scientists in Brazil have tied them to a greater risk of declining brainpower.
The study couldn't prove cause-and-effect. However, "the cognitive decline could be the result of microvascular lesions in the brain, reduced brain volume or even systemic inflammation caused by the consumption of ultra-processed foods," theorized study lead researcher Natalia Gomes Goncalves. She's in the Department of Pathology in the School of Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo.
.....For the study, the researchers collected data on nearly 11,000 men and women, with a mean age of 52, who took part in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health.
During a median follow-up of eight years, participants who ate more than 20% of daily calories from ultraprocessed foods had a 28% faster decline in global cognition and a 25% faster decline in executive function, Goncalves said. This association was stronger for adults aged 35 to 59, compared with adults older than 59, she said.
.....Based on these findings, doctors might counsel patients to cook at home using fresh ingredients, instead of buying ready-made meals and snacks, Goncalves said.
More study is needed to confirm whether a high intake of ultra-processed foods really directly harms the brain.
......When people eat ultraprocessed foods on a regular basis, they are unlikely to get the fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that their bodies need to be healthy, fight disease and reduce inflammation, she said.
"Ultimately, this can affect how well our brains work because they need a steady supply of these macro- and micronutrients to function properly. We can't mentally muscle our way through poor nutrition," Heller explained.
Chips, pizza, cookies: Delicious, but a diet full of ultraprocessed foods like these may contribute to brain deterioration, researchers report.
Ultraprocessed foods have lots of added and unhealthy ingredients, such as sugar, salt, fat, artificial colors, and preservatives. Examples include frozen meals, soft drinks, hot dogs and cold cuts, fast food, packaged cookies, cakes and salty snacks.
These foods have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, metabolic syndrome and obesity.
Now, scientists in Brazil have tied them to a greater risk of declining brainpower.
The study couldn't prove cause-and-effect. However, "the cognitive decline could be the result of microvascular lesions in the brain, reduced brain volume or even systemic inflammation caused by the consumption of ultra-processed foods," theorized study lead researcher Natalia Gomes Goncalves. She's in the Department of Pathology in the School of Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo.
.....For the study, the researchers collected data on nearly 11,000 men and women, with a mean age of 52, who took part in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health.
During a median follow-up of eight years, participants who ate more than 20% of daily calories from ultraprocessed foods had a 28% faster decline in global cognition and a 25% faster decline in executive function, Goncalves said. This association was stronger for adults aged 35 to 59, compared with adults older than 59, she said.
.....Based on these findings, doctors might counsel patients to cook at home using fresh ingredients, instead of buying ready-made meals and snacks, Goncalves said.
More study is needed to confirm whether a high intake of ultra-processed foods really directly harms the brain.
......When people eat ultraprocessed foods on a regular basis, they are unlikely to get the fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that their bodies need to be healthy, fight disease and reduce inflammation, she said.
"Ultimately, this can affect how well our brains work because they need a steady supply of these macro- and micronutrients to function properly. We can't mentally muscle our way through poor nutrition," Heller explained.