One Milkshake Can Impair Brain Function Within Hours, Study Finds

What you eat has a crucial impact on your health. What if we tell you that your occasional indulgence could be killing your brain? Yes, you heard that right. And if you are a fitness enthusiast who religiously takes cheat days every week, you may want to think twice. Something as little as ‘a’ milkshake can harm your brain. A new study has found that a single high-fat meal, such as a milkshake, could impair blood flow to the brain and potentially increase the risk of stroke and dementia. The findings of the study are published in The Journal of Nutritional Physiology.Dietary fat is an important part of our diet. It plays a crucial role in providing energy. They function as structural building blocks of the body, carry fat-soluble vitamins, are involved in vital physiological processes in the body, and are indispensable for a number of important biological functions, including growth and development. We consume two types of fat - saturated and unsaturated (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated). They are different in their chemical composition and also have different effects on the body. The new study found that consuming a high-fat diet, such as milkshakes or greasy food, has an immediate effect on the body. They can impact the ability of blood vessels to constrict. Eating a meal that is high in saturated fat can not only affect the heart but also the brain.To understand what happens to the brain during this time and how well its blood supply is protected, the researchers studied two groups of men. 20 of them were aged between 18 and 35, while the rest 21 were aged between 60 and 80. Their blood vessels linked to the heart and brain were examined. The participants were fed a high-saturated fat meal, and then after four hours, they were re-examined. The researchers picked milkshake as the high-fat meal. They called it 'the brain bomb', as it consisted mostly of heavy whipping cream. The drink had 1,362 calories and 130g of fat, which mimicked the fat load of a fast-food takeaway.The results showed that a high-fat meal impairs the ability of the blood vessels linked to heart health to open in both young and old participants. These impairments reduced the brain's ability to buffer changes in blood. These effects were more pronounced (by about 10%) in the older adults, which means older brains may be more vulnerable to the effects of the meal.“Our study highlights the importance of consuming a diet that is low in saturated fat to protect not only our heart health, but also our brain health. This is particularly important for older adults whose brains appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of such a meal and are already at increased risk of stroke and neurodegenerative diseases,” the researchers said. The researchers said that though an occasional high-fat meal is ‘unlikely to cause harm’, it can still have a ‘measurable impact’. “Even one fatty meal has an immediate effect on the body,” they said.