There's a certain comfort in tucking into some indulgent or fast food on a chilly evening, at a motorway service station, or after a night out. However, it's well-known that too much of it can negatively impact our health.
A health expert has now revealed that a specific takeaway item could be impairing our memory and focus. Research carried out at Tianjin Medical University in China investigated the heightened risk of dementia associated with fast food consumption.
The study, led by Dr Hupind Li, found that an unhealthy diet can weaken and damage blood vessels, leading to brain inflammation, as reported by The Mirror. Studies have shown that those who avoid junk food perform better on cognitive tests.
This is bad news for fried chicken lovers. While chicken itself can be healthy, its deep-fried version could pose health risks. Fried chicken, high in saturated fat, could trigger artery disease, heart attack, and even stroke, according to research.
The research also uncovered strong evidence linking poor diet to an increased risk of dementia, reports Wales Online. To mitigate potential health risks, experts recommend maintaining a balanced diet throughout the day and incorporating fruits and vegetables.
Dr Huiping Li from Tianjin Medical University has raised the alarm over ultra-processed foods, stating: "Ultra-processed foods are meant to be convenient and tasty but they diminish the quality of a person's diet. These foods may also contain food additives or molecules from packaging or produced during heating, all of which have been shown in other studies to have negative effects on thinking and memory skills."
The health expert added with concern: "Our research not only found that ultra-processed foods are associated with an increased risk of dementia. It found replacing them with healthy options may decrease dementia risk."
On a related note, CNBC flagged that bevvy lovers should think twice about sugary drinks. Piling on the sugar, especially in your cuppa, could play havoc with your memory, experts warn.
The culprits often lurk as high-fructose corn syrup in drinks, which gives your brain a sweet shock of glucose. Although our grey matter needs glucose to function, too much can zap your memory, leaving the hippocampus – that's the brain's memory bank – less flexible.
Ladies and gents need to keep their added sugar intake to 25g and 36g a day, respectively. It doesn't stop there – grabbing that diet soda might not be any better. Research indicates depression risks clock higher when linked to drinks with artificial sweeteners. So maybe it’s time to give that 'healthy' option a swerve too
A recent study by the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, published in JAMA Network Open, has revealed alarming links between mental health and diet after tracking over 30,000 middle-aged women from 2003 to 2017. None of the participants originally had depression diagnoses.
The study zeroes in on the ramifications of chomping down ultra-processed grub, covering a smorgasbord of items like grain foods, sweet snacks, microwave meals, fatty sauces, dairy treats, crisps, processed meats, soft drinks, and artificial sweeteners. Researchers tracked who among the women ended up with depression, correlating it with their taste for ultra-processed nosh.
Key takeaway: Downing too much artificially sweet stuff and diet sodas could bump up depression risk. Scientists pointed out that "although the mechanism associating UPF to depression is unknown, recent experimental data suggests that artificial sweeteners elicit purinergic transmission in the brain, which may be involved in the etiopathogenesis of depression."
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