High-calorie diets are usually associated with a variety of diseases, including obesity and diabetes, but we don’t always associate them with brain health. A study involving researchers from CINTESIS – Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias e Serviços de Saúde/Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto (FMUP) has now highlighted that, during adolescence, this type of diet can have consequences for the brain, inducing deficits in learning and memory, as well as increased levels of anxiety.
According to the work published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, “prolonged consumption of high-calorie diets, high in saturated fats and refined sugars, induces neuroinflammation, causes changes in the GABAergic system and significantly interferes with the formation of new neurons, even in the absence of considerable weight gain”.
This research, carried out in an animal model, made it possible to analyze the molecular mechanisms that may explain the effects of chronic consumption of diets rich in fat and sugar on the developing brain. The work focused on a specific region of the brain, the formation of the hippocampus, which is fundamental for learning and memory processes and for regulating emotions, and which is also one of the regions most susceptible to nutritional imbalances.
“Our data show that cognitive and anxiety problems associated with the consumption of high-calorie diets may be related to increased neuro-inflammation and/or reduced neurogenesis and expression of certain proteins of the GABAergic system in the formation of the hippocampus,” explains Bárbara Mota, a researcher at CINTESIS/FMUP.
The results clearly show that some neurons in the hippocampus are particularly vulnerable to high-calorie diets, at least during adolescence, which could explain problems with spatial learning and memory, as well as increased levels of anxiety.
According to the study’s first author, these results “consolidate the evidence that adolescence is an extremely vulnerable period for dieting” and emphasize the importance of identifying the mechanisms underlying changes in memory and anxiety.
Following on from this study, the research team now intends to prevent the negative effects of high-calorie diets on the hippocampus through the use of foods rich in antioxidant compounds, which are part of the Mediterranean diet, as well as through the administration of two drugs used as first-line treatment in type 2 diabetes mellitus.
In addition to Bárbara Mota (CINTESIS/FMUP), this study has other FMUP researchers as authors, namely Ana Rita Brás, and RISE-Health/FMUP researchers, namely Leonardo Araújo-Andrade, Ana Silva, Pedro Pereira, as well as Dulce Madeira and Armando Cardoso (CINTESIS/FMUP) as coordinators.
FMUP is committed to providing open and transparent information about research involving animals and about animal care and welfare standards, having signed the Agreement on Transparency in Animal Research in Portugal and respecting Portuguese and European legislation.