Highly processed food may affect memory and lead to Alzheimer's, says study

A new study has revealed that four weeks on a diet of highly processed food can lead to a strong inflammatory response in the brains of ageing rats, accompanied by behavioural signs of memory loss.

Also, replacing processed foods with omega-3 fatty acid DHA reduced the inflammatory effects in older rats.

However, no such cognitive issues were found in young rats that were given a processed food-enriched diet.

Senior study author Ruth Barrientos, an investigator in The Ohio State University Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural health said, "The fact we're seeing these effects so quickly is a little bit alarming."

He further highlighted that the findings also indicated that processed diet can lead to abrupt memory deficit and rapid memory decline in older people. This can be a cause of Alzheimer's.

"By being aware of this, maybe we can limit processed foods in our diets and increase consumption of foods that are rich in the omega-3 fatty acid DHA to either prevent or slow that progression," Ruth said.

The research team randomly assigned 3-month-old and 24-month-old male rats to their normal chow (32 per cent calories from protein, 54 per cent from wheat-based complex carbs and 14 per cent from fat), a highly-processed diet (19.6 per cent of calories from protein, 63.3 per cent from refined carbs, cornstarch, maltodextrin and sucrose, and 17.1 per cent from fat), or the same processed diet supplemented with DHA.

The activation of genes led to a powerful pro-inflammatory protein and various other substances that contribute to inflammation.

The results also concluded that DHA supplementation of the processed-food diets consumed by the older rats prevented the elevated inflammatory response in the brain and behavioural signs of memory loss.

These researchers, however, are not sure about the exact dosage of DHA.