How Long term high fat diet expands waistline and shrinks brain

New research shows that fatty foods may not only be adding to your waistline but also playing havoc with your brain.

An international study led by UniSA neuroscientists Professor Xin-Fu Zhou and Associate Professor Larisa Bobrovskaya  has established a clear link between mice fed a high-fat diet for 30 weeks, resulting in diabetes, and a subsequent deterioration in their cognitive abilities, including developing anxiety, depression and worsening Alzheimer's disease.

Mice with impaired cognitive function were also more likely to gain excessive weight due to poor metabolism caused by brain changes. Researchers from Australia and China have published their findings in Metabolic Brain Disease.

 UniSA neuroscientist and biochemistAssociate Professor Larisa Bobrovskaya says the research adds to the growing body of evidence linking chronic obesity and diabetes with Alzheimer's disease, predicted to reach 100 million cases by 2050.

In the study, mice were randomly allocated to a standard diet or a high-fat diet for 30 weeks, starting at eight weeks of age. The mice on the high-fat diet gained a lot of weight, developed insulin resistance and started behaving abnormally compared to those fed a standard diet. Genetically modified Alzheimer's disease mice showed a significant deterioration of cognition and pathological changes in the brain while fed the high fat diet.

Researchers concluded that findings underline the importance of addressing the global obesity epidemic. A combination of obesity, age and diabetes is very likely to lead to a decline in cognitive abilities, Alzheimer's disease and other mental health disorders."

Reference:Xiong, J., Deng, I., Kelliny, S. et al. Long term high fat diet induces metabolic disorders and aggravates behavioral disorders and cognitive deficits in MAPT P301L transgenic mice. Metab Brain Dis (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-022-01029-x