Against Alzheimer’s disease, avoid sugary snacks

Nutrition is also recognized as an important factor in the good aging of the brain. Several animal studies have highlighted the role of high sugar consumption in worsening the clinical signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

Faced with these two findings, a French team * sought a potential link between genetic predispositions, sugar consumption and risk of dementia.

They thus analyzed the 12-year data from nearly 2,800 participants in the French Three Cities cohort, which since 1999 has been monitoring nearly 10,000 French people over the age of 65.

Insulin peaks to taste

They studied the occurrence of dementias linked to eating habits and more particularly their glycemic load contribution over the 4 meals of the day.

Result: in participants who did not have the risk genotype, no association between the occurrence of dementia and sugar consumption was detected. On the other hand, in people who are predisposed (therefore having the E4 allele of the APOE gene), the researchers observed “an association between the consumption of sugar during a snack and the occurrence of dementia. The risk was increased by 2 to 3 times for each additional portion equivalent to the glycemic load of 30 grams of baguette ”. On the other hand, no association of this type was revealed for the other meals of the day.

For the authors, the foods consumed at snack time are rich in sugars, low in fat and fiber. They are also consumed more quickly and without being accompanied by other types of food such as during main meals.

In fact, they are absorbed much faster in the blood during digestion, triggering an insulin spike. “Repeated daily, these insulin spikes could eventually lead to cerebral insulin resistance (in which the brain is less sensitive to insulin and less able to use glucose) via oxidative stress and inflammation, which would promote development of dementias ”, specifies Sylvaine Artero, principal author of this work.

* Unit 1061 Neuropsychiatry: epidemiological and clinical research (Inserm / University of Montpellier)

Cancer: sit less, move more

Source: Destination Santé

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