Consumption of ultra-processed foods and brain impairment

Like an expensive car, your brain functions best when it gets only premium fuel. Eating high-quality foods that contain lots of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants nourishes the brain and protects it from oxidative stress — the "waste" (free radicals) produced when the body uses oxygen, which can damage cells.

Unfortunately, just like an expensive car, your brain can be damaged if you ingest anything other than premium fuel.

The article Ultra-processed foods – like cookies, chips, frozen meals and fast food – may contribute to cognitive decline published on University of Florida's Center for Aging and Memory website, the consumption of ultra-processed/processed/junk food may cause brain impairment/cognitive decline.

Eva Selhub MD wrote at Harvard University's Health Blog:

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Like an expensive car, your brain functions best when it gets only premium fuel. Eating high-quality foods that contain lots of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants nourishes the brain and protects it from oxidative stress — the "waste" (free radicals) produced when the body uses oxygen, which can damage cells. Unfortunately, just like an expensive car, your brain can be damaged if you ingest anything other than premium fuel. If substances from "low-premium" fuel (such as what you get from processed or refined foods) get to the brain, it has little ability to get rid of them. Diets high in refined sugars, for example, are harmful to the brain. In addition to worsening your body's regulation of insulin, they also promote inflammation and oxidative stress. Multiple studies have found a correlation between a diet high in refined sugars and impaired brain function — and even a worsening of symptoms of mood disorders, such as depression. It makes sense. If your brain is deprived of good-quality nutrition, or if free radicals or damaging inflammatory cells are circulating within the brain's enclosed space, further contributing to brain tissue injury, consequences are to be expected. What's interesting is that for many years, the medical field did not fully acknowledge the connection between mood and food.

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Harvard Health Publishing, which is associated with the Harvard Medical School, noted:

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Having a hard time giving up ultra-processed ("junk") foods? Those are items like microwaveable dinners, deli meat, white bread, packaged cookies, cheese puffs, and pastries. Perhaps this will help curb your appetite for them: A study published online Dec. 5, 2022, by JAMA Neurology found a link between eating lots of ultra-processed foods and cognitive decline. The study involved almost 11,000 dementia-free people (ages 35 to 74). Participants filled out food questionnaires and periodically underwent cognitive testing that measured memory, word recognition and recall, and other thinking skills. After eight years, scientists found that middle-aged people who ate the most junk food had a faster rate (up to 28%) of cognitive decline, compared with people who ate the least junk food. This is plausible, because we know that a diet rich in ultra-processed foods is associated with increased risks for many chronic diseases, including heart disease and diabetes (which have risk factors similar to those for dementia). So try to cut back on junk food and fill your plate with healthier goodies, such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and lean proteins.

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On December 5, 2022, the website News Medical Life Science reported about ultra-processed foods (UPFs):

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In a recent JAMA Neurology study, researchers report that consuming ultra-processed foods (UPFs) increases the risk of cognitive decline, particularly among middle-aged adults... UPFs, which are food products that consist of highly processed food components such as oils, fats, sugars, starch, and protein isolates, offer little to no health benefit for the consumer. In addition to these ingredients, UPFs also often consist of artificial flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers, and other cosmetic additives. Some examples of common UPFs include breakfast cereals, sweet and savory snacks, ice cream, ready-to-eat frozen meals, processed meats, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Over the past 40 years, the production of UPFs by the global food industry has increased substantially. In fact, recent estimates indicate that UPFs comprise 58% of the calories consumed by U.S. citizens, 57% of those consumed by British citizens, 48% of those consumed by Canadian citizens, and 30% of calories consumed by Brazilian citizens. Previous studies indicate widespread consumption of UPFs is directly related to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, and obesity. However, due to the lack of data correlating the risk of UPF consumption and dementia, the current study aimed to better understand this potential association.

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New research indicates that regularly consuming ultra-processed foods such as hot dogs and frozen pizza can raise your risk of cognitive decline.

In December 2022, Healthline.com published the article How Ultra-Processed Foods Can Raise Risk of Cognitive Decline which stated:

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New research indicates that regularly consuming ultra-processed foods such as hot dogs and frozen pizza can raise your risk of cognitive decline. In a study published today in the journal JAMA Neurology, researchers looked at more than 10,000 individuals over a median period of 8 years. They concluded that people whose daily calorie intake is at least 20% from ultra-processed foods had a 25% faster decline in executive functions and a 28% faster rate of overall cognitive impairment. The researchers noted that if a person’s overall diet quality was high, the effect of ultra-processed foods was less. “While this is a study of association, not designed to prove cause and effect, there are a number of elements to fortify the proposition that some acceleration in cognitive decay may be attributed to ultra-processed foods,” Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine and nutrition, told CNN. “The sample size is substantial and the follow-up extensive. While short of proof, this is robust enough that we should conclude ultra-processed foods are probably bad for our brains,” he added.

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Fortune magazine's wellness portion of its website, Fortune Well, in its article entitled French fries on the brain? New study says eating ultra-processed food might lead to cognitive decline indicates:

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You may want to think twice before you reach for that bag of potato chips. According to a new study, eating ultra-processed foods, such as ice cream, hot dogs, and french fries, for more than 20% of your caloric intake could lead to cognitive decline, especially with regards to memory and executive function–the part of the brain that helps us plan, focus, and make decisions. While high intake of ultra-processed foods have been associated with cardiovascular disease and cancer and believed to induce systemic inflammation and oxidative stress, little was known about its effect on cognition until now. The study, which was presented Monday at the 2022 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in San Diego by Natalia Gonçalves, PhD from the University of São Paulo, followed roughly 10,000 Brazilians for up to 10 years and defined ultra-processed foods as “those that go through significant industrial processes and contain large quantities of fats, sugar, salt, artificial flavors/colors, stabilizers and/or preservatives.” More than half of the participants were white and women and the average age was 51. Cognitive performance was evaluated using an array of tests: immediate recall, late recall, recognition, semantic and phonemic verbal fluency and trail-making tests. The most common foods participants reported eating were hot dogs, burgers, pizza, fast food, instant noodles, packaged bread, according to Gonçalves. While the suggested daily caloric intake depends on a variety of factors, including age, weight and height, as well as level of physical activity, the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests 2,200–2,800 calories for men between 41-50 years old and 1,800–2,200 calories for women between 41-50 years old, so 20% of a 2,200-calorie diet would be 440 calories. Meanwhile, a snack-sized bag of chips is about 150 calories and there are roughly 285 calories in a slice of pizza.

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Research from the past ten or so years has shown that the more ultraprocessed foods a person eats, the higher the chances that they feel depressed and anxious.

The New York Times article The Link Between Highly Processed Foods and Brain Health notes:

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Roughly 60 percent of the calories in the average American diet come from highly processed foods. We’ve known for decades that eating such packaged products — like some breakfast cereals, snack bars, frozen meals and virtually all packaged sweets, among many other things — is linked to unwelcome health outcomes, like an increased risk of diabetes, obesity and even cancer. But more recent studies point to another major downside to these often delicious, always convenient foods: They appear to have a significant impact on our minds, too. Research from the past ten or so years has shown that the more ultraprocessed foods a person eats, the higher the chances that they feel depressed and anxious. A few studies have suggested a link between eating UPFs and increased risk of cognitive decline... Recent research has demonstrated a link between highly processed foods and low mood. In one 2022 study of over 10,000 adults in the United States, the more UPFs participants ate, the more likely they were to report mild depression or feelings of anxiety. “There was a significant increase in mentally unhealthy days for those eating 60 percent or more of their calories from UPFs,” Dr. Hecht, the study’s author, said. “This is not proof of causation, but we can say that there seems to be an association... “Many high-quality, randomized studies have shown the beneficial effect of a nutrient-dense diet on depression, but we still do not fully understand the role of food processing on mental health,” said Melissa Lane, a researcher at the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University in Australia. However, there are some clues. Much of the research has focused on how poor gut health might affect the brain. Diets that are high in ultraprocessed foods are typically low in fiber, which is mostly found in plant-based foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Fiber helps feed the good bacteria in the gut. Fiber is also necessary for the production of short-chain fatty acids, the substances produced when it breaks down in the digestive system, and which play an important role in brain function, said Wolfgang Marx, the president of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research and a senior research fellow at Deakin University. “We know that people with depression and other mental disorders have a less diverse composition of gut bacteria and fewer short-chain fatty acids.”

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Journal articles related to the consumption of processed foods and brain impairment

• Association Between Consumption of Ultraprocessed Foods and Cognitive Decline, JAMA Neurol. 2023;80(2):142-150. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.4397

• Association of Ultraprocessed Food Consumption With Risk of Dementia: A Prospective Cohort Study, Neurology, July 27, 2022, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000200871

See also

• Cognitive decline and diet
• Academic performance and nutrition
• Consumption of ultra-processed foods and health risks
• Obesity and its negative impact on intelligence