OUR BRAIN IS AFFECTED BY WHAT’S ON OUR PLATES????

For decades we have been surrounded by sweet and fatty foods. And the body has not been dealing well with these eating habits. But what about the brain?

Do our mental health, our moods, and our brain abilities suffer from the wrong kind of nutrition?

We know that junk food is making us fat, but science is telling us now that it might also be shrinking our brains. Habitual intake of foods high in fat and sugar results in reprogramming of the brain. In short, our brain is affected by what’s on our plates. It all starts with our very first meals, even before birth. The brain is built up during pregnancy and its functioning, later on, depends on how it has been nourished by the expectant mother’s diet over nine months. A number of consequences of poor nutrition during gestation have been known for a long time. Mothers who ate more junk and processed foods during their pregnancy had children with more of these behaviours such as aggression, anger, and tantrums. This disquieting correlation suggests that the mother’s diet impacts the mental development of the infant.

The brain is an organ which is rich in PUFA or omega-3. Omega-3 is indispensable because the body cannot make it so it has to come from the diet. The amount of omega-3 that enters the brain is crucial for making brain cells more efficient because when these fatty acids are incorporated into the membranes of nerve cells, they improve their electrical properties. In omega 3-rich neurons, the signals propagate faster and the network is more efficient. Depriving the brain of omega-3 is linked to a risk that it will function less. The general population is deficient in omega-3 due to its insufficient, so it's important to pay attention to it especially in the prenatal developmental period when omega-3 is incorporated in large quantities into the brain. Also, in adolescence, since it is a particular time of change of diet. And, during ageing where the incorporation of omega-3 into the brain tends to be less effective, so we must increase its intake.

The first rule for a brain to run at full speed is to avoid deficiencies. But good nutrients and a varied diet should be available. The amino acid is one building-block of a protein that is key to brain function. Dopamine molecule ensures communication between neurons involved in motivation and risk-taking. The results of the blood analysis show that subjects with higher levels of tyrosine

in their blood are more willing to accept the unfair offer. In other words, what we eat can subtly alter the chemistry of the brain within hours and thus the communication between the neurons;

enough to guide some of our decisions. Since we eat three times a day, every day, we realize that food has enormous power, modifying and shaping us. So it’s important to think about how we can use food to promote our well-being and optimize our mental state. Not only does an unbalanced diet affect our brain functions and behaviour, and our meal plan interferes with everyday decisions, it is also becoming increasingly clear that diet plays a decisive role in our mood and possibly mental health.

But what about junk food, dripping with sugar and bad fats? What would happen if we ate more of that?

Recent studies show that in humans that an energy-rich diet also interferes with the hippocampus.

We see for example, that the quality of people’s diets is related to the size of their hippocampus. An overly rich diet confuses the immune system. It responds by triggering an inflammatory reaction, especially in fatty tissues. Our fat masses release substances that then propagate this inflammation throughout the body which may spread to the brain because the blood-brain barrier which normally protects the brain from inflammatory molecules may be impaired in fact by the diet and become leaky allowing traffic of molecules into the brain. The inflammation infiltrates the meninges and then triggers a surprising phenomenon

The reward circuit is a region of the brain that controls the feeling of pleasure. It is particularly responsive to sugar consumption. But eating too much ends up weakening its responsiveness

so that at the same dose, the sensations of pleasure are ultimately reduced. After a diet too rich in sugar, the brain becomes hypersensitive to images of food. The more and more you eat ice cream,

the more your reward circuitry is activated when you see an ice cream store or on television.

Scientists now consider the microbiome to be a kind of intermediary, a link between food and the brain. The main factor that influences the composition of microbes in the food we eat. Diet and the diversity of the diet is really important from the moment we’re born until we die, in shaping the composition of the microbes. So we’re beginning to realise the importance of what we eat has on what’s in our microbes, and how that’s influencing what’s going on in our brain. Our well-being depends, in one way or another, on our microbiome. A diet that is good for our mood is first and foremost a diet that is suitable for the bacteria in our intestines. Researchers are only just beginning to uncover the secrets of the remarkable relationship between nutrition and the brain. The ideal menu for our little grey cells is still largely unknown. But a balanced, diverse diet which does without processed food and sugar, and favouring fruits and vegetables, seems so far to be the best recipe for preserving the mental faculties.

My grandmother said “You are what you eat, so eat well.

Mr. GOPIKRISHNAN T.S., V Pharm. D