Ultraprocessed Foods Linked To Cognitive Decline Even in Small Amounts

Even small amounts of ultraprocessed food cause measurable declines in cognitive function, according to a new study.

The results hold even when the person eats an otherwise healthy diet.

Website Psypost reports, “Previous observational studies have found connections between eating highly processed foods and experiencing worse cognitive performance. However, a major question has remained unanswered in the scientific community. Highly processed foods often take the place of nutrient-dense options like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Researchers wanted to understand if ultra-processed foods negatively impact the brain simply because they crowd out healthy nutrients, or if the industrial processing itself plays a distinct role in cognitive decline.

“To explore this relationship, researchers conducted a cross-sectional study involving 2,192 Australian adults between the ages of 40 and 70. All participants were free of dementia and neurological conditions at the start of the project. The participants were recruited through an online research platform called the Healthy Brain Project, which targeted individuals who had a known or suspected family history of dementia. This specific age range was selected because middle adulthood is a time when the early biological changes associated with neurodegeneration often begin to emerge.

“The scientists assessed the dietary habits of the participants using a detailed questionnaire that asked how often they consumed specific foods and beverages over the previous twelve months. After collecting this information, the researchers used a framework known as the Nova system to classify the reported foods based on their level of industrial processing. The team calculated the total daily calories and the total daily weight of the food consumed by each person to determine the exact percentage of ultra-processed foods in each participant’s daily diet.”

A series of cognitive tasks were then performed by the subjects.

The researchers found that higher consumption of ultraprocessed food was associated with reduced attention span.

“For every 10 percent increase in ultra-processed food a person consumed”—roughly the equivalent of a single bag of chips—”we saw a distinct and measurable drop in a person’s ability to focus,” one of the researchers explains.

“In clinical terms, this translated to consistently lower scores on standardized cognitive tests measuring visual attention and processing speed.”

Higher intake of ultraprocessed food was also linked to increased risk of developing dementia.

The researchers believe a number of different mechanisms could be at work to produce the results. These include the harmful effects of food additives such as emulsifiers and colorings, and harmful changes to the gut microbiome, the collection of microorganisms that inhabit the digestive system.