Article summary - diet induced cognitive deficits

In the second article summery I am following a similar theme to the article discussed last week I.E. improving diet to improve health. However this time the article focuses on how your diet impacts on your brain function.

Overeating fat and/or sugar can impair a range of memory functions. This review focuses on the hippocampus as a number of studies now highlight that it is particularly sensitive to diet effects. The hippocampus is responsible for a number of functions including episodic memory (i.e., remembering what we have eaten) as well as our responsiveness to internal hunger and satiety cues. Impaired hippocampal function may therefore create a vicious cycle in which it is both a cause and consequence of overeating and obesity. Specifically, diet-induced hippocampal damage can occur prior to weight gain and this may lead to further overeating of the foods that caused the dysfunction in the first place.


Rapid onset diet-induced hippocampal deficits may be related to inflammation in the central nervous system but further studies are necessary to ascertain this. Further research is also necessary to determine the mechanisms through which obesity and its comorbidities may exacerbate cognitive impairments. In this review, we have shown that omega-3 and curcumin may provide promising targets to attenuate or prevent these deficits as they act on common targets including inflammation and neuroplasticity.