Scientists have discovered a link between eating processed food and the risk of dementia in a new study.
The study, which was conducted by Monash University in Australia, and has recently been published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, involved examining the cognitive health and diets of more than 2,100 middle-aged and older adults in Australia without dementia.
They found that just a 10% increase in ultra-processed foods (UPFs) was linked to a drop in attention span and a higher dementia risk in middle-aged and older adults.
A 10% increase is a relatively small amount, and equates to adding just one standard bag of chips into your daily diet.
“For every 10 per cent increase in ultra-processed food a person consumed, we saw a distinct and measurable drop in a person’s ability to focus,” lead author Dr Barbara Cardoso stated. “In clinical terms, this translated to consistently lower scores on standardized cognitive tests measuring visual attention and processing speed,” she added.
An extra 1 bag of chips per day could increase the risk of dementia
In the USA, 53% of all calories consumed are said to be Ultraprocessed foods, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states.
In the recent study, there was no direct link found between UPFs and memory loss, although attention span is the foundation for a number of important brain operations.
Participants ate a healthy Mediterranean diet during the study, and therefore it was discovered that the increase of UPFs are not counteracted by an otherwise healthy diet.
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