Researchers from the Ohio State University Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research found that older rats on a 4 weeks diet of highly processed food led to a strong inflammatory response in the brains of aging rats with some type of memory loss.
Highly processed diets are known to be associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The authors also showed that supplementation of the diet with mega-3 fatty acid was able to prevent memory problems and reduced the inflammation almost entirely!
Butler M, Deems N, Muscat S, et al. Dietary DHA prevents cognitive impairment and inflammatory gene expression in aged male rats fed a diet enriched with refined carbohydrates. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 2021; 98: 198.
