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To explain how diet affects health, it is popularly said that ‘we are what we eat‘. The idea behind that premise (eating poorly carries a higher risk of disease) is accepted by the scientific community in general.
So much so that it is almost certain that in a routine checkup the doctor will ask how we have been eating.
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Although it is impossible to classify a food as good or bad ‘per se’, Yes, it is possible to study the interaction between the components of food with the human organism.
One of the relationships that most interests the scientific community is that between diet and brain health, as this It is responsible for managing the activity of the nervous system, including cognitive (information processing) and motor skills.
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In this context, the question is not only if certain foods can affect the brain: it also matters how.
With that in mind, several studies in recent years have attempted to shed light on the issue at hand by focusing on specific food and drink groups.
We tell you what has been found with the three most representative.
Food with sweeteners
Controlling glucose levels is key to good health.
This category refers to all products that have integrated artificial sugar (packaged potatoes, gummies, among others processed) and not to that found naturally in food (such as fructose).
Artificially sweetened beverages, for example, could increase the risk of dementia, suggests a January 2017 study in the journal ‘Stroke’ and replicated by Harvard University.
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The sweeteners included in the research were saccharin, acesulfame potassium and aspartame (the latter two present in most soft drinks).
Many sodas are often sweetened with acesulfame potassium and aspartame.
One reason that would explain this is that when the brain tries to metabolize high levels of sugar it could affect the hippocampus, a key area for memory, says a November 2013 article in the journal ‘Neurology’.
Another factor would make the consumption of sweeteners in excess even more dangerous: their addictive capacity. That point is addressed in another scientific article published in October 2016 and available in the journal ‘Physiology & Behavior’.
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Its authors found evidence that supports “That sweeteners impact the neural mechanisms involved in maintaining energy homeostasis (the mechanism that regulates what, when and how much we eat) and the processing of the reward ”, reads the conclusion of the document.
That, according to research, would perpetuate the intake of foods with sweeteners.
Alcoholic drinks
Alcohol directly influences the metabolism of thiamine or vitamin B1.
Too much alcohol, like sugar, could affect the hippocampus, especially in people over 30 years old. This has been found by various investigations, including one from the magazine ‘The BJM’ of June 2017.
As explained on its website by the Faculty of Medicine of the Francisco de Marroquín University (UFM), of Guatemala, alcohol affects the metabolism of vitamin B1, key to supplying energy to the brain.
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Hence, alcoholics are more likely to suffer from Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, caused by thiamine deficiency and which includes in its symptoms “inability to form new memories, memory loss which can be severe, loss of muscle coordination uncoordinated movements when walking ”, among others, describes the UFM.
High fat and fried food
Fast food is one of the exponents of food high in saturated fat.
In 2019, Professor Nicolas Cherbuin from the Australian National University (ANU) published a study in the journal ‘Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology’ on the impact of a ‘harmful lifestyle’ on brain health.
“We have found strong evidence that people’s unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise for long periods of time put them at serious risk of developing type 2 diabetes and significant declines in brain function, such as dementia and brain shrinkage“Cherbuin explained in an ANU article that summarized the findings.
One of the reasons that led to this conclusion was that people could be consuming more and more kilocalories, thus increasing the risk of suffering conditions associated, in turn, with neurodegeneration, such as the aforementioned type 2 diabetes.
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The problem would also lie in saturated fats, as these increase the risk of hypertension. The relationship with the brain? This condition would affect blood circulation, “which leads to ischemic damage to the white matter regions, which would affect cognitive function and can promote Alzheimer’s “, read the results of an investigation published by the journal ‘Hypertension’ in October 2016.
Cholesterol problems, which in turn can affect the brain, are directly related to diet.
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