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We all eat them:
Ultraprocessed foods such as
frozen pizza and ready-to-eat meals make our busy lives
much easier. Besides that, they are just darn tasty. Who isn’t susceptible
to hot dogs, sausages, burgers, french fries, sodas, cookies, cakes, candy,
doughnuts or ice cream?
If more than 20% of your
daily calorie intake comes from ultraprocessed foods, however, you may be raising your risk for
cognitive decline, a new study found.
That amount would equal about
400 calories a day in a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet. For comparison, a small order of fries and regular cheeseburger
from McDonald’s add up to 530 calories.
The part of the brain
involved in executive functioning – the ability to process information and
make decisions – is especially hard-hit, according to the study.
Men and women in the study
who ate the most ultraprocessed foods had a 25% faster rate of executive
function decline and a 28% faster rate of overall cognitive impairment compared with those
who ate the least overly processed food.
“While this is a study of
association, not designed to prove cause and effect, there are a number or
elements to fortify the proposition that some acceleration in cognitive
decay may be attributed to ultraprocessed foods,” said Dr. David Katz, a
specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine and nutrition, who was not
involved in the research.
“While short of proof, this
is robust enough that we should conclude ultraprocessed foods are probably
bad for our brains.”
There was a twist, however:
If the person’s overall diet quality was high – meaning they also ate a lot
of unprocessed whole fruits and veggies, whole grains and healthy sources
of protein – the association between ultraprocessed foods and cognitive
decline disappeared, Katz said.
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