Eating these foods for 3 days can cause brain damage

According to a recent study, this diet can impair memory and affect the brain within three days.

Three days of refined foods are enough to impair the memory of a growing brain.A recent study in older mice showed that low-fiber, highly-refined flour, sugars, and saturated fats take up a lot of space on our plates, directly challenging our eating habits.

Published in the scientific journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, the work, carried out by the team of Ruth M.Barrients from Ohio University and Kadrin K.Baskin, describes very rapid changes in sensory and contextual memory associated with consumption of a refined, fiber-free diet.With one question in the background: what happens to older people who eat this kind of food every day?

refined food/ The act of eating: exploring preconceptions

The researchers explain that they want to move beyond the vague term 'high-fat diet'. Ruth M. Barrientos and Kedrin K. Baskin said: "Previous research, including ours, has shown that a so-called 'high-fat diet' can rapidly impair memory within days, especially in older animals and humans. The problem is that the term 'high-fat diet' is vague," the authors of the study told PsyPost.

These diets often differ not only in the amount of fat, but also in the amount of sugar and other nutrients they contain.

To answer this question, the team created diets with fully controlled diets."To fill this gap, we designed a study that allowed us to separate these nutrients more precisely. We used a carefully controlled refined diet containing specific amounts of fat, sugars, and protein, without the added ingredients usually found in a normal diet. Young (3 months) and old (24 months) rats were fed both a high-fiber diet for three days before a modified fiber-free diet."By testing young and old rats and studying different types of memory, we wanted to better understand which parts of the diet are most important for brain health and whether age makes the brain more vulnerable to certain nutrients," explained Ruth M. Barrientos and Kedryn K. Baskin.

In the aging brain, the amygdala and hippocampus rapidly fail

The results show a clear difference between young and old animals: the mice retain their memories, whatever the food.In rats, the effects appear within days.

"Experts explain that old animals who eat a high-fat, low-sugar diet have memory problems related to the hippocampus, which is involved in activities such as brain movement and recall of events. But what is amazing is that all the refined foods we tested, regardless of the fat and sugar content, disrupted the emotional functioning of the old rats, impaired memory, impaired memory, or dangerous myengdala."

Three days without fiber is enough to "disturb" the brain

Therefore, almonds appear to be particularly sensitive to the refined, fiber-free nature of these foods, regardless of fat or sugar content.The researchers pointed out the potential impact on the elderly: "These findings indicate that the consumption of these foods may make it more difficult for older adults to recognize and remember potentially harmful situations, which may increase the risk of accidents or financial mistakes. I can say that three days is insignificant ... only on the surface, because the weakness of the elderly brain is quickly manifested in the memory of fear and context.

Beyond behavior, the team investigated the energy function of brain cells."At a biological level, we found that these diets interfered with how mitochondria produce and manage energy in the brain cells of aging mice," the researchers explain.

Fiber, butyrate and mitochondria: what happens when the brain ages

"The strongest effects were seen in microglia, the immune cells of the brain, which became less sensitive when faced with changes in energy demand. Importantly, the low-fiber diet caused a significant decrease in butyrate, a beneficial substance produced by gut bacteria when we eat fiber. When energy demand increased. For the researchers, the absence of dietary fiber and the decrease in butyrate thus form a central link between the gut and the brainaged.

The study was conducted in male rats and was conducted over a very short period of time, requiring confirmation in humans.Ruth M.Barrientos and Kedrin K.Baskin also suggests further research: "We need to determine whether supplementing an unhealthy refined diet with fiber or butyrate, a metabolite of fiber, is sufficient to restore memory," added Ruth M.Barrientos and Kedrin K.Baskin.indicates a very rapid response to several days of refined fiber-free diets, whether high in sugar or not, and suggests that the overall quality of the diet is far more important than just the amount of calories.