Junk food: brain at risk

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Extract from the article: Eating junk food for a week impairs brain function. This is what researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney (Australia) have revealed. In addition, this high-sugar, high-fat diet encourages some healthy people to eat more.

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Eating junk food for a week impairs brain function. This is what researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney (Australia) have revealed. In addition, this high-sugar, high-fat diet encourages some healthy people to eat more.

Hamburgers, sharwamas, ham, sausages, sweets, crisps, cakes, ready meals, junk food is very high in added fat and sugar. « These eating habits cause weight gain and have a negative impact on the brain », says Lambert Buffalo, Nutritionist.

Scientists say that after eating too much fat and sugar, people have more difficulty regulating their appetite because the diet disrupts the area of the brain that controls memory and motivation, called the hippocampus. After a week on the diet, these appetising foods become more desirable when you are full. « It is then harder to resist, leading to more eating, which in turn generates more damage to the hippocampus. This is the vicious circle of overeating », says Lambert Buffalo, Nutritionist.

According to the researchers, memory is also affected. The more people who follow and adopt this diet, find sweet food appetising while they are full, the more they have a weakened score in the memory function test. « Thus, junk food has an impact on both eating behaviour and memory », says the nutritionist. Moreover, its effect seems to be rapid since the first consequences on the hippocampus are observed after only one week of an unbalanced diet.

Elom AKAKPO