Eating egg, fish, meat may add to memory loss

People who love this high protein diet are at a greater risk since an amino acid is present in such foods which promotes memory loss, as investigated by the University of Louisville researchers

People who love their diet of egg, fish, and meat have something to be amused about, if we go the recent findings of the University of Louisville researchers in Boston. The initial investigations by the research team suggests that due to the presence of an amino acid, methionine, a protein important for maintaining the brain, netrin, is methylated.

The researchers have earlier confirmed that a healthy diet can boost memory. However, these findings now suggest that an excess methionine diet caused memory impairment. Hyper-methylation that affected netrin expression, is a protein important in maintaining synaptic plasticity and involved in axonal guidance and neurogenesis.

As reported by ANI

Dr Anuradha Kalconducted an experiment along with other researchers, where mice were fed with a diet containing high amounts of methionine and low amounts of folate and vitamins B6 and B12.

They measured the mice's memory capability along with netrin and methylation levels in the mice's brains and found that the longer the mice were on the diet, the less netrin was expressed and the more the netrin gene was methylated.

The researchers noted that the data confirmed that a high-methionine diet induced learning and memory defects.

The story was presented at the Experimental Biology Meeting 2015