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Love soft drinks ?  Or processed foods ? ..Beware Before You Forget Everything

harmful effect of fructose

The result of a new UCLA rat study shows how a diet with high fructose slows the brain down, and hamper memory and learning abilities and the study also shows how omega-3 fatty acids can counteract with the issue. All these findings were found in The Journal of Physiology in May 15 edition.

high-fructose corn syrup which is an inexpensive liquid and six times sweeter than cane sugar is commonly added to processed foods, including soft drinks, condiments, applesauce and baby food.

However , what is Fructose ? Fructose is a monosaccharide (simple sugar) which is used by human body to collect energy. It has a low glycemic index. .Once it was considered that fructose was a good substitute for sucrose which is known as table sugar. However, the American Diabetes Association and nutritional experts have changed their minds about this.

Most of the carbohydrates that people eat generally are made up of chains of glucose. When glucose enters the bloodstream, the body releases insulin to help regulate it. Fructose is processed in the liver. When too excess fructose enters the liver, the liver can’t process it all fast enough for the body to use as sugar. Instead, it starts making fats from the fructose and send them off into the bloodstream causing risk factor for heart diseases.

According to Fernando Gomez-Pinilla who is a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of integrative biology and physiology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science , their findings illustrate that what people eat affects how people think .

According to the study , Eating a high-fructose diet since long time , may slow down brain’s activity and that may interrupt the process that brain uses to learn things and remembering information. But the damage can be minimized through adding omega-3 fatty acids to meals.

Earlier studies on Fructose revealed so many information such as how fructose harms the body through its positive role in diabetes, obesity and fatty liver but this time , this study is the first to unveil how it influences the brain.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average American consumes more than 40 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year.

Researcher , Gomez-Pinilla, who is also a member of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute and Brain Injury Research Center , told more , “We’re not talking about naturally occurring fructose in fruits, which also contain important antioxidants. We’re concerned about high-fructose corn syrup that is added to manufactured food products as a sweetener and preservative.”

Gomez-Pinilla and study co-author Rahul Agrawal who is a UCLA visiting postdoctoral fellow from India, examined two groups of rats . The two groups of rat were given a fructose solution as drinking water for one and half months . A group in the two groups also received omega-3 fatty acids in the form of flaxseed oil and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) that  protects against damage to the synapses — the chemical connections between brain cells that enable memory and learning.

“DHA is essential for synaptic function ( brain cells’ ability to transmit signals to one another ) According to Gomez-Pinilla , this is the mechanism that makes learning and memory possible.  Human bodies can’t produce enough DHA, so that must be supplemented through proper diet.

Here is how the two rat groups were examined by the research team ;

The animals were given standard rat chow and trained on a maze two times daily for five days before starting the experimental diet. The UCLA team tested how well the rats were able to navigate the maze, which contained numerous holes but only one exit. The scientists also placed visual landmarks in the maze to help the rats learn and remember the way.

After six weeks , the researchers tested the rats’ ability to remember the route and escape the maze. But what they saw was surprising.

The second group of rats that were given omega-3 fatty acids along with Fructose added drinking water , recognized the maze much faster than the rats that did not receive omega-3 fatty acids. The study showed that the first group of rat were slower, and their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity. Their brain cells had trouble signaling to each other and that was the reason that they didn’t recognize the route that they learned & knew one and half months ago.

According to Gomez-Pinilla,  Insulin is important in the body for controlling blood sugar, but it may play a different role in the brain, where insulin appears to disturb memory and learning,”

he more added . “Our study shows that a high-fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body. This is something new .Our findings suggest that consuming DHA regularly protects the brain against fructose’s harmful effects . It’s like saving money in the bank. You want to build a reserve for your brain to tap when it requires extra fuel to fight off future diseases”.

Gomez-Pinilla recommends people to have foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, like salmon, walnuts and flaxseeds, or to take one gram of  DHA per day.

However , walnuts are also helpful to fight against depression.

Story Source : medicalxpress.com