Damaging effects of a high-fat diet to the brain and cognition: A review of proposed mechanisms

Freeman, Linnea R.; Haley‐Zitlin, Vivian; Rosenberger, Dorothea; Granholm, Ann‐Charlotte

doi:10.1179/1476830513y.0000000092

Cited by 270 publications

(213 citation statements)

References 131 publications

(146 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

200

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This is in agreement with the report of Freeman et al (2014), who demontrated that a high fat diet could shorten the lifespan and accelerate the ageing. ROS, the most abundant free radicals in cells, are the byproducts of normal cellular metabolism of oxygen.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Purple sweet potato anthocyanin attenuates fat-induced mortality in Drosophila melanogaster

Wang

Lei

et al. 2016

Experimental Gerontology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Purple sweet potato anthocyanin attenuates fat-induced mortality in Drosophila melanogaster

Wang

Lei

et al. 2016

Experimental Gerontology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Adult epidemiological studies have also shown that intake of a high-fat diet that includes mostly n-6 and SFA is associated with worse performance on cognitive tasks (30) . These associations may be even more profound at early life, as the brain grows at its fastest rate during the first 3 years of life, and it is possible that poorer food choices during this early period may discourage optimal head and brain growth (31) .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary patterns in early childhood and child cognitive and psychomotor development: the Rhea mother–child cohort study in Crete

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Early-life nutrition is critical for optimal brain development; however, few studies have evaluated the impact of diet as a whole in early childhood on neurological development with inconsistent results. The present analysis is a cross-sectional study nested within an ongoing prospective birth cohort, the Rhea study, and aims to examine the association of dietary patterns with cognitive and psychomotor development in 804 preschool (mean age 4·2 years) children. Parents completed a validated FFQ, and dietary patterns were identified using principal component analysis. Child cognitive and psychomotor development was assessed by the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA). Multivariable linear regression models were used to investigate the associations of dietary patterns with the MSCA scales. After adjustment for a large number of confounding factors, the 'Snacky' pattern (potatoes and other starchy roots, salty snacks, sugar products and eggs) was negatively associated with the scales of verbal ability (β = − 1·31; 95 % CI −2·47, −0·16), general cognitive ability (β = − 1·13; 95 % CI −2·25, −0·02) and cognitive functions of the posterior cortex (β = − 1·20; 95 % CI −2·34, −0·07). Further adjustment for maternal intelligence, folic acid supplementation and alcohol use during pregnancy attenuated the observed associations, but effect estimates remained at the same direction. The 'Western' and the 'Mediterranean' patterns were not associated with child neurodevelopmental scales. The present findings suggest that poorer food choices at preschool age characterised by foods high in fat, salt and sugar are associated with reduced scores in verbal and cognitive ability.

show abstract

“…Indeed, reduced cognitive performance following consumption of a high fat (HF) diet has been observed in humans [7][8][9][10] and animals [11][12][13][14]. Mechanisms likely involved in diet-induced damage to the brain include impaired glucoregulation [15], increased oxidative stress, and increased inflammation in brain tissue [16][17][18][19]. Previous work from our laboratory provided evidence for impairment of cognitive function in rats fed a high fat high cholesterol (HFHC) diet, and suggested that alterations in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and in microglial activation may contribute to the reduced spatial and working memory observed [12,20,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Detrimental effects of a high fat/high cholesterol diet on memory and hippocampal markers in aged rats

Ledreux

Wang

Schultzberg

et al. 2016

Behavioural Brain Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

High fat diets have detrimental effects on cognitive performance, and can increase oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain. The aging brain provides a vulnerable environment to which a high fat diet could cause more damage. We investigated the effects of a high fat/high cholesterol (HFHC) diet on cognitive performance, neuroinflammation markers, and phosphorylated Tau (p-Tau) pathological markers in the hippocampus of Young (4-month old) versus Aged (14-month old) male rats. Young and Aged male Fisher 344 rats were fed a HFHC diet or a normal control diet for 6 months. All animals underwent cognitive testing for 12days in a water radial arm maze to assess spatial and working reference memory. Hippocampal tissue was analyzed by immunohistochemistry for structural changes and inflammation, and Western blot analysis. Young and Aged rats fed the HFHC diet exhibited worse performance on a spatial working memory task. They also exhibited significant reduction of NeuN and calbindin-D28k immunoreactivity as well as an increased activation of microglial cells in the hippocampal formation. Western blot analysis of the hippocampus showed higher levels of p-Tau S202/T205 and T231 in Aged HFHC rats, suggesting abnormal phosphorylation of Tau protein following the HFHC diet exposure. This work demonstrates HFHC diet-induced cognitive impairment with aging and a link between high fat diet consumption and pathological markers of Alzheimer's disease.

show abstract

Damaging effects of a high-fat diet to the brain and cognition: A review of proposed mechanisms

Cited by 270 publications

References 131 publications

Purple sweet potato anthocyanin attenuates fat-induced mortality in Drosophila melanogaster

Purple sweet potato anthocyanin attenuates fat-induced mortality in Drosophila melanogaster

Dietary patterns in early childhood and child cognitive and psychomotor development: the Rhea mother–child cohort study in Crete

Detrimental effects of a high fat/high cholesterol diet on memory and hippocampal markers in aged rats

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About