Your junk food craving might be hurting your memory
Eating junk food often could increase risk of cognitive disease
- Eating a junk food-heavy diet for just a few days may impair memory, according to researchers at UNC School of Medicine.
- Foods rich in cholesterol-raising saturated fats disrupt the hippocampus by causing brain cells to become overactive and impairing glucose reception.
- A protein called PKM2, which controls how brain cells use energy, was also identified as contributing to the problem.
- The study, conducted on mice, showed that brain cells became overactive within four days of consuming a high-saturated fat diet.
- Intermittent fasting and other dietary changes were found to normalize brain cell activity and fix memory problems in the mice, offering potential avenues for future human treatment.