What’s your go to beverage? Is it something high in sugar, probably delicious, but lasts a minute on the lips and just a bit too long on the hips. Well you may want to think twice about the next time you grab that high-sugar, low-nutrient drink.
It’s well known that consuming excess sugar, and especially high fructose corn syrup, have detrimental health effects. Weight gain, low energy, and poor blood sugar control are the big ones, but what about its effects on the brain? Reviewing data from the Framingham Heart Study, an ongoing study that has been following different cohorts of participants since 1948, researchers are now finding a correlation between the consumption of sugary beverages and brain function. In participants who consumed two sugary drinks per day, including soda and fruit juice, researchers found accelerated brain aging and degeneration. These findings included a decrease in overall brain volume, poorer cognitive function, and a smaller hippocampus (the area of the brain responsible for memory).
So at this point you might be thinking, “no problem, I’ll grab a diet soda.” Unfortunately for you diet soda drinkers, the study also found that just one can of diet soda was associated with lower brain volume and made participants 3x more likely to suffer a stroke and dementia! It’s important to keep in mind that this was a cohort study, making it difficult to isolate specific factors of participant’s diets, however this was one correlation that researchers were surprised to find. They are unsure at this time the exact mechanisms behind this finding.
So where does this leave us? Should you drink diet or opt for regular? The answer is neither. We may not know the exact reason why we see the changes in the brain after long-term consumption of these drinks, but we have good evidence that we should steer clear of these sugary and diet drinks. Your brain will thank you later!
In Health,
Inertia Health Center