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Fried food: If it's date night and you plan to grab pizza or burgers, there's no way you will be in mood for sex at the end of it. The high trans fat content of the food not only makes you sluggish but also kills your libido!
Binging on fast foods or fatty foods has several ill-effects that are well known but we still choose to ignore them. A high-fat diet is not only responsible for high blood cholesterol levels but also for diseases like hypertension, cardiovascular ailments, type-2 diabetes etc. A new study further emphasises on the need to cut down on such foods. It claims that a diet with high-fat content has adverse effects on brain health. It alters your behaviour, increases anxiety and depression risk and impairs memory. (Read: High-fat diet increases the risk of heart attack and stroke)
Are these findings applicable only to obese or over-weight poeple?
No, researchers say that even if you are not obese or over-weight you should limit your intake of high fat foods to prevent diet-induced psychiatric disorders.
How does high fat food affect your mental health?
High-fat food alters the mix of bacteria in the gut and thereby induces changes in your behaviour and health. John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry believes that the study suggests that high-fat diets impair brain health, in part, by disrupting the symbiotic relationship between humans and the micro-organisms that occupy our gastrointestinal tracks. The human microbiome consists of trillions of microorganisms, many of which reside in the intestinal tract. The researchers at the Louisiana State University in the US tested whether an obesity-related microbiome alters behaviour and cognition even in the absence of obesity. (Read:High-fat diet can ruin your sense of smell!)
How was the study conducted?
Non-obese adult mice were conventionally housed and maintained on a normal diet, but received a transplant of gut microbiota from donor mice that had been fed either a high-fat diet or control diet. The recipient mice were then evaluated for changes in behaviour and cognition. The animals who received the microbiota shaped by a high-fat diet showed multiple disruptions in behaviour, including increased anxiety, impaired memory, and repetitive behaviours. (read: Avoid high-fat foods during pregnancy to have a healthier baby)
Further, they showed many detrimental effects in the body, including increased intestinal permeability and markers of inflammation. Signs of inflammation in the brain were also evident and may have contributed to the behavioural changes, the researchers noted. These findings provide evidence that diet-induced changes to the gut microbiome are sufficient to alter brain function even in the absence of obesity.
With inputs from ANI
Image source: Getty Images
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