Beware! Eating Burgers, French Fries Can Damage Your Brain, Here's How
Image Credit: Ultra-processed foods (Picture Courtesy: Pixabay)

We all love visiting McDonald’s for our favourite burgers and French fries whenever we go out. Having these fast foods once in a while is absolutely fine. But, their frequent intake can be debilitating for your overall health in a long term. These kinds of foods including apple pie, carrot cake, soft drinks, frozen meals, salty snacks, cookies, corn chips, etc. are called ultra-processed foods that are associated with various health conditions. 

For unversed, ultra-processed foods refer to edible items that go through processing and that change their natural state. It is done by adding hydrogenated fats, starches, added sugar, and sometimes additives like flavours, artificial colour, and stabilizers too. These substances make ultra-processed foods unhealthy for your body. 

Frequently having these items can aids weight gain and affects your brain too. When you follow such kind of diet, you consume approximately 500 more calories per day than what unprocessed foods offer. This is what gradually leads to obesity, says a study published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

How Ultra-processed Foods Damage Your Brain?

When you satisfy your craving for ultra-processed foods, your brain rewards you by triggering dopamine, a neurotransmitter known to create a feeling of pleasure. Your brain registers all the pleasures in the same way whether it is in response to drugs, money, or something else. Eating ultra-processed foods stimulates a greater sense of rewards than unprocessed foods. This shows how addictive these edibles can be. 

Moreover, following a diet dominated by sweet drinks, salty snacks, and processed meats can make your hippocampus (a part of the brain that plays a significant role in learning and memory) smaller than other people. 

Too much intake of ultra-processed foods can also edge out healthy foods that are known to protect your brain by stroking low-level inflammation. 

Ultra-processed foods can lead to chemicals going haywire in your brain in the long term. So, now is the time to pick and choose wisely or else be ready to live a short life with various complications.