Conscious Choice: Your Brain on Sugar

February 2008 | Healthy Living :: Body Talk

Your Brain on Sugar

by Liz Barker

Not just a hazard to your teeth and waistline, slurping up too many sugary beverages may increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. To test the effects of sugar overload on the progression of Alzheimer’s (a condition linked to both obesity and diabetes), researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham fed a group of mice a diet that was 10 percent comprised of sugar water. After 25 weeks, the sugar-fed mice had gained about 17 percent more weight than mice that followed a regular, balanced diet. They also displayed poorer learning abilities and memory retention, and their brains contained more than twice as many amyloid plaque deposits (a hallmark of Alzheimer’s).

The human equivalent of the study’s mouse diet would be about five cans of soda per day, the study’s authors note. But since mice have a higher metabolism, they add, less sugar intake could have a similar impact in humans.

New Red-Meat Risk
One more reason to cut back on bacon burgers: New findings from the U.S. National Cancer Institute indicate that loading up on red meat and processed meat could raise your risk for several kinds of cancer. The study’s authors even suggest that one in 10 colorectal (colon or rectal cancer) and one in 10 lung cancers could be avoided if people lowered their red and processed-meat intake.

The study began in 1995, when researchers surveyed about 500,000 cancer-free adults (ages 50 to 71) about their eating habits over the previous year. At a follow-up some eight years later, 53,396 incidences of cancer were identified. Those who had the highest red-meat intake showed a 20 to 60 percent increased risk of colorectal, liver, lung, and esophageal cancer when compared to those who ate the least red meat. A high intake of processed meat was also linked to elevated risk for colorectal and lung cancer.

Since the study’s definitions of red meat and processed meat overlapped (with bacon and ham included in both categories, for instance), the researchers weren’t able to determine which kind of meat may cause which form of cancer.

Fresher Breath, Naturally
An herb-infused mint could knock out odor-causing germs faster than your average breath freshener, according to a new study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Mints made with extract of magnolia bark—an herb used in traditional Chinese medicine—were found to kill 61 percent of oral bacteria that trigger tooth decay and bad breath within 30 minutes. Researchers tested the extract’s effects on saliva samples taken from nine volunteers, discovering that extract-free mints destroyed only 3.6 percent of germs.

Not yet available in breath-freshening products, digestion-aiding magnolia bark is most commonly found in stomach-soothing herbal formulas. If developed, magnolia-containing mints could serve as an alternative to existing antibacterial products, some of which may lead to tooth-staining and other side effects.

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