How High-Fat Food Plays Tricks With Your Brain, Seriously

OK, this sounds like some kind of conspiracy of french fries, but researchers at the University of Georgia are convinced that it’s true: A high fat changes bacteria in our gut, and the new bacteria sends information to our brain that can impair our ability to know when we are full. The bottom line: We eat more, when eating french fries, than we would if we were eating a less fatty food, like cantaloupe. A University of Georgia news release reports that researchers at the school liken the microscopic phenomenon to the way a sudden shift in temperature might impact the people who live in the affected area: Some people will be fine. Others will become ill. Krzysztof Czaja, an associate professor of neuroanatomy in the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine and a coauthor of the study, says the bacterial changes can damage gut-brain neural connections, resulting in inflammation and leading to miscommunication between the gut and the brain. Czaja plans to do more research to determine if the change is permanent. The researcher’s advice? When it comes to diet, people should “think systemically. All of the components and receptors in the body are interconnected and should work in harmony. There is not a single receptor responsible for huge physiological outcomes.” Czaja points out that throughout the history of mankind until just a few decades ago, the human body was used to foods derived from natural and whole sources, rather than artificial and highly processed. “We should be aware that on a high-fat (and high-carbohydrate) diet, balance in the intestinal microbiota and gut-brain communication—which was developing over thousands and thousands of years in humans and animals—has been interrupted by the introduction of modified foods,” he says. “This leads to the confused brain and inappropriate satiety feedback and results in obesity.”