Ultra-Processed Foods May Impair Cognition in Elderly

An article before this 12 months in the European Journal of Nourishment documented that large intake of ultra-processed foodstuff is linked to even worse-than-normal effectiveness on a single certain exam of cognitive operate in older U.S. adults (60+ a long time-old) who did not have long-term conditions these as diabetic issues or cardiovascular ailment. The specific test was “Animal Fluency.” Never read of it? Me either. Retain reading.

The analyze integrated 2,700 participants, ordinary age 69. Participants had been asked to remember what they ate in the prior 24 several hours. Foodstuff were being “classified according to NOVA, a foods classification dependent on the extent and objective of industrial food stuff processing, into 4 mutually unique groups: (1) unprocessed or minimally processed foodstuff, (2) processed culinary components, (3) processed foodstuff, and (4) UPFs [ultra-processed foods].”

Ultra-processed foods? “…most meals described as “Frozen meals” or “Lunchables”, as well as some things explained as eaten in “Restaurant speedy foodstuff/pizza” or obtained at a “Vending machine” were categorized as UPFs.” Furthermore, the authors compose in the introduction that “UPFs, in accordance to NOVA classification method, are industrial formulations of processed foodstuff substances (oils, fats, sugars, starch, and protein isolates) that contain tiny or no complete foodstuff and commonly include things like flavourings, colourings, emulsifiers, and other beauty additives. UPFs are getting dominant in diet plans globally and are replacing common eating plans dependent on unprocessed and minimally processed food items.

Of the entire study populace at hand, UPFs have been about fifty percent of all energy eaten but ranged from 30 to 70%.

“Cognitive general performance was assessed employing the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Illness (CERAD), Phrase Learning check, Animal Fluency check, and the Digit Symbol Substitution check (DSST).”

The Animal Fluency examination “evaluates categorical verbal fluency (govt function).” “For the Animal Fluency check, the participant is requested to identify as many animals as possible within just a 60-s [60 seconds, I assume] time interval. Just about every animal corresponds to 1 level and the outcome is presented as the whole sum of factors.”

The examination topics have been presented two other assessments of cognitive operate but the investigators uncovered no differences in efficiency dependent on extremely-processed food usage. Right here are these other two tests:

The two elements of the CERAD Word Learning take a look at consist of (1) 3 consecutive learning trials, exactly where the participant is requested to remember a listing of 10 unrelated words and phrases right away immediately after their presentation. Just about every word corresponds to one particular point, and the end result is introduced as a overall rating throughout the a few trials (range 0–30) and (2) a delayed phrase remember test, carried out immediately after the two other cognitive assessments. The final result ranges from to 10. … For the DSST, the participant is presented a single sheet of paper the place they are questioned to match a listing of 9 symbols to numbers in accordance to a crucial found on the prime of the webpage. The task experienced 133 numbers and the participant had 2 min to total it. The end result is revealed as the total variety of right matches. For all the checks, higher scores symbolize better cognitive perform. 

The authors conclude: “Consumption of UPF was connected with worse general performance in Animal Fluency, a cognitive examination that assesses language and government purpose in older grown ups with out pre-present illnesses this sort of as CVD [cardiovascular disease] and diabetic issues, when no associations were being noticed for all those with these problems. When longitudinal research are essential to provide stronger evidence, these final results propose that reducing UPF intake may perhaps be a way to mitigate age-associated cognitive drop and lessen the chance of dementia.”

I concur these final results aren’t pretty powerful.

Steve Parker, M.D.

h/t Jan at The Lower Carb Diabetic web site