DID YOU KNOW?

How a sugary diet affects you

A diet experiment carried out on rats has produced results that are relevant to how we eat as humans.

Tests by the University of Southern California, US, showed how eating a sugarrich diet in childhood could affect brain development.

They fed one group of young rats a high-sugar diet, while another group was fed regular food. A few weeks later the animals were set a form of memory test.

The researchers found the sugar-fed rats had much poorer memories than the control group. Also, the faeces of sugar-fed animals contained higher levels of certain types of bacteria, notably Parabacteroides. When these microbes were added to the diet of other young rats, they too performed poorly in memory tests. To combat the negative effects of an early life sugary diet on brain development, rein in the sugar in a child’s diet. It is also worthwhile to identify specific probiotics that will keep gut bacteria healthy.