Eating fast food too often could have irreversible consequences on memory.

Too fatty and too sugary: An excessive diet rich in fats and sugars, such as the foods offered by fast-food chains, hinders proper brain development at the cognitive level, affecting memory in particular.

Junk food is said to cause the death of 11 million people worldwide each year. It also promotes obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and early cognitive decline. On this last point, a study has particularly focused on the consequences of fast food on brain development.

The findings of this research show that significant consumption of junk food during adolescence could have irreversible consequences on the brain, particularly on memory, as reported by New Atlas. To reach this conclusion, American researchers conducted tests on rats.

Rats fed with junk food

Some rodents were given an unbalanced diet, rich in fat and sugar, from their 26th to 56th day of life, corresponding to childhood and adolescence, and then a balanced diet in adulthood. A second group received a standard and healthy diet, without excess fat and sugar.

Experiments were then conducted on both groups to test their episodic memory, which allows individuals to locate themselves in time and space. The results were clear: rats that had been properly nourished had good memory, while those poorly nourished during their development showed significant deficiencies.

An irreversible alteration

Even worse, returning to a healthy diet did not improve the cognitive abilities of the rats at all, suggesting that memory had been irreversibly affected. Researchers identified that the "poor diet" had altered the production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that plays an essential role in memory and learning.

For scientists, the same could be true in the human brain. Eating too much fast food between the ages of 10 and 24 could dampen brain development... forever. Extensive studies on the effects of this diet on humans will need to be conducted, and researchers are already considering ways to counter these harmful effects.

https://www.20minutes.fr/sante