Should dementia be added to the list of health conditions supposed to be caused by eating ultra-processed foods (UPFs)?
People who eat more junk food, like fizzy drinks, sweets and takeaways, as well as any meals that aren’t home-cooked, are more likely to develop memory problems with ageing, researchers have said.
The claims may sound alarming, but they should be taken with a pinch of salt, as this research has not shown that UPFs cause dementia.
Many previous studies have shown links between diet and brain health, but the relationship isn’t clear-cut. Here’s what we do and don’t know.
Correlations between UPFs and dementia
With dementia becoming the leading cause of death in the UK, there have been many studies investigating if it is linked with any lifestyle factors, including what we eat.
The latest research looked at the diets of nearly 5,400 Americans, taken from a long-running study of health and lifestyle in people over 50.
It found that those who ate the most UPFs had a 50 per cent higher chance of developing dementia or cognitive impairment than those ate the least over the nine years they were studied, in research published in the American Journal of Public Health.
“Our findings suggest a potential need to reduce UPFs consumption for maintaining cognitive health among older adults,” said the researchers, led by Dr Cindy Leung, a nutrition researcher at Harvard University.
But how do these findings fit with other research on diet and dementia? Avoiding UPFs is certainly one of the hottest food crazes at the moment, but most food experts say the evidence is still unclear.
There have always been concerns that food like takeaways, snacks and sweets are bad for us, but that was thought to be because it is high in fat, especially saturated fat, as well as salt and sugar.
“It is unclear whether [UPFs] are inherently unhealthy due to processing or because a large majority of them are high in calories, saturated fat, salt and free sugars,” concluded the government’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition last year.
So, what can you do about it?
Cut fat and sugar
Studies like the most recent one find correlations between UPFs and dementia, but they don’t show it is UPFs specifically that is damaging the brain – it could be the food’s fat or sugar content.
In fact, decades of research have shown it is those constituents of food that lead to poor health outcomes, like weight gain and high blood pressure.
That means that, rather than focusing on whether your meals are home-made or pre-prepared, you could lower your risk more by making sure it doesn’t have too much fat or sugar.
In fact, there are 14 different risk factors for dementia that it is possible to alter, to a greater or lesser extent, according to an international group of experts called the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care.
Fix high blood pressure
Many of their recommendations chime with established health advice, such as staying a healthy weight, and keeping blood pressure and cholesterol levels under control.
That’s because of the principle that “what is good for the heart is good for the brain” – in other words, things that keep the heart and blood vessels healthy will also protect against dementia.
The health of the blood vessels inside the brain affect dementia risk in two main ways. One form of dementia, called vascular dementia, stems directly from damage to blood vessels, which may cause strokes or “mini-strokes”.
Healthy blood vessels also play a role in staving off Alzheimer’s disease, the other main form of dementia, because they help clear the brain of a toxic protein called amyloid, which causes brain cell death.
Lower cholesterol
Of the 14 modifiable risk factors identified by the Lancet Commission, one of the ones with the biggest influence is having high cholesterol levels.
This can be reduced by eating less saturated fat – found mainly in red meat – and if necessary taking cholesterol-lowering statins.
Don’t drink too much
Other diet-related factors that contribute to dementia risk include developing type 2 diabetes, obesity and drinking too much.
So, the best lifestyle advice for avoiding dementia is to do all the things that doctors have been advising for years: try to stay a healthy weight, take part in regular exercise, and get your blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked out.
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