New research suggests that eating an excess of fatty foods not only increases your waistline, but also wreaks havoc on your brain. The work, carried out by members of the University of South Australia, has found a link between following a high-fat diet for 30 weeks – which ends with a diagnosis of diabetes – and worsening cognitive abilities, linked to greater risk of anxiety, depression and further deterioration of Alzheimer’s in those who previously suffer from it.
The tests in this study, published in the journal Metabolic Brain Disease, were performed on eight-week-old mice that were randomly separated into two groups, one fed a high-fat diet for 30 weeks, and the other a standard diet. . Glucose and insulin tolerance and cognitive dysfunction were measured several times over the duration of the study.
This work has been carried out in line with the growing evidence that indicates a relationship between chronic obesity and diabetes with Alzheimer’s, which could reach 100 million cases in 2050. “Obesity and diabetes damage the central nervous system, which exacerbates psychiatric disorders and cognitive impairment. We demonstrated this in our study with mice”, explained Larisa Bobrovskaya, main author of the research.
Obesity increases the risk of depression by 55%
The results of the trial indicated that the mice that were put on a high-fat diet gained a lot of weight, developed insulin resistance and began to behave abnormally, all compared to rodents that were fed a standard diet.
Mice on high-fat diets became very fat, developed insulin resistance and exhibited abnormal behaviors
In addition, those mice that were genetically modified with Alzheimer’s disease and fed high-fat diets had significant impairment in cognition and pathological changes in the brain. Animals with impaired cognitive function were at increased risk of gaining weight as a result of poor metabolism caused by disturbances in the brain.
“Obese people have a 55% increased risk of developing depression, and diabetes will double that risk. Our findings underscore the importance of addressing the global obesity epidemic. It is very likely that a combination of obesity, age and diabetes leads to decreased cognitive abilities, Alzheimer’s disease and other mental health disorders,” Bobrovskaya concludes.
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