THE ESSENTIAL
- 50 million people suffer from dementia worldwide.
- In 60 to 70% of cases, dementia is caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
- Alzheimer’s disease affects approximately 900,000 people in France.
Chips, mayonnaise, ice cream, sodas, sausages, fried chicken, industrial guacamole and hummus, flavored cereals… These popular foods are not only bad for hip circumference and cardiovascular health. They can also be bad for the brain
This is according to a new online study published in Neurology. According to its authors, members of the Tianjin Medical University in China, consuming a lot of ultra-processed foods is associated with an increased risk of dementia.
High in added sugar, fat and salt, and low in protein and fibre, these foods “may also contain food additives or molecules from packaging or produced during heating, all of which have been shown in other studies to have negative effects on thinking and memory skills”says Dr. Huiping Li, who led the work.
The good news, however, is that researchers have found that replacing these foods with healthier alternatives also reduced the risk of dementia.
A significant increase in the risk of dementia
The researchers used data from the UK Biobank of 72,083 people aged 55 who did not have dementia at the start of the study. They were followed for an average of ten years. At the end of the study, 518 people were diagnosed with dementia.
Participants completed questionnaires regarding their eating habits. The researchers then determined the percentage of ultra-processed foods consumed by the participants in order to divide them into four study groups.
On average, ultra-processed foods made up 9% of the daily diet of people in the lowest group, an average of 225 grams per day, compared to 28% for people in the highest group, an average of 814 grams per day. One serving of foods like pizza or fish sticks equals 150 grams. The main food group contributing to the high consumption of ultra-processed foods was beverages, followed by sugary products and ultra-processed dairy products.
In the group consuming the least ultra-processed foods, 105 of 18,021 people developed dementia, compared with 150 of 18,021 people in the highest group.
Concretely, this means that for every 10% increase in the daily consumption of ultra-processed foods, the risk of dementia increased by 25%.
A phenomenon that is not inevitable
The researchers also used the study data to estimate what would happen if a person replaced 10% of ultra-processed foods. by unprocessed or minimally processed foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, milk and meat. They found that such a substitution was associated with a 19% lower risk of dementia.
“Our results also show that an increase in unprocessed or minimally processed foods of just 50 grams per day, equivalent to half an apple, a serving of corn or a bowl of bran cereal, and a simultaneous decrease in foods ultra-processed foods of 50 grams a day, equivalent to a bar of chocolate or a serving of fish sticks, is associated with a 3% lower risk of dementia, details Professor Li. It’s encouraging to know that small, manageable changes in diet can make a difference in a person’s risk of dementia.”
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