{"id":214047,"date":"2025-10-10T10:30:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T10:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/214047\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T10:30:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T10:30:30","slug":"highly-processed-foods-linked-to-cognitive-decline-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/214047\/","title":{"rendered":"Highly processed foods linked to cognitive decline: study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ultra-processed food and snacks may be trashing your brain.<\/p>\n<p>Women who ate processed grub such as white bread, soda, chicken nuggets and hot dogs in midlife are more likely to have cognitive decline later in life, a new, first-of-its-kind study found.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at New York University tracked over 5,000 women for 30 years, and those who reported consuming those types of foods in their 40s and 50s were 24% more likely to report problems with memory recall and concentration as they\u2019ve aged.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37288072\" width=\"734\" height=\"489\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/nyu-researchers-link-highly-processed-112667006.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of a woman with her head open showing cotton candy, surrounded by ultra-processed foods and question marks, representing a link to cognitive issues.\" class=\"wp-image-37288072\" style=\"width:734px;height:auto;aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\"  \/>The authors suggest steering clear of fats and fatty acids. Falon \/ NY Post Design<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMidlife is a particularly critical period for the onset of cognitive decline and Alzheimer\u2019s disease development in later years, especially in women,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0091743525001732?via%3Dihub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">reads the study<\/a>, published by Preventive Medicine in next month\u2019s edition.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers collected data from 14,274 Nyc women aged 35 to 65 beginning in 1985. Between 2018 and 2020, just 5,119 responded to NYU\u2019s follow-up questions. Approximately 1,638 women reported experiencing cognitive problems.<\/p>\n<p>Consuming ultra-processed foods has long been linked to a range of health issues that can contribute to neurological deficits later in life, the study noted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMidlife hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, smoking, physical inactivity, and heavy drinking are all linked to an increased Alzheimer\u2019s disease risk,\u201d the authors wrote. \u201cThe biological mechanisms of the association between [ultra-processed food] consumption and cognitive decline is complicated and could be explained from several aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The findings suggest cognitive problems \u201ccould be driven by the effects of rich fat and saturated fat in ultra-processed meat, fast food, and dairy products,\u201d the authors wrote. \u201cSaturated fat and fatty acids in the [ultra-processed foods] could modulate gut bacterial profile.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Increasing evidence suggests \u201cthat gut microbiome can affect cognitive function by bidirectional communication between the central nervous system and gastrointestinal tract,\u201d reads the study.<\/p>\n<p>While specific to women, the hope is the research could help to prevent Alzheimer\u2019s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLimiting [ultra-processed food] consumption, particularly during middle age, could be an effective strategy for preventing cognitive decline,\u201d the study\u2019s authors added.<\/p>\n<p>Study participants who adhered to the DASH diet \u2014 which stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension \u2014 in midlife had a lower risk of developing cognitive issues later down the road. <\/p>\n<p>The diet focuses on eating foods high in blood pressure-lowering nutrients, such as potassium, calcium, magnesium and fiber.<\/p>\n<p>Additional reporting by Samantha Olander <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ultra-processed food and snacks may be trashing your brain. Women who ate processed grub such as white bread,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[1491,3457,17788,97,1999,269,85735,3284,27502,1764,965],"class_list":["post-214047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-brains","tag-diets","tag-fast-food","tag-health","tag-new-york-city","tag-nutrition","tag-nyu","tag-study-says","tag-ultra-processed-foods","tag-women","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}