高脂肪餐会影响注意力

高脂肪餐会影响注意力

A new study finds eating just one meal high in saturated fat can hinder our ability to concentrate.

一项新的研究发现，仅仅吃一顿高饱和脂肪的饭就会阻碍我们集中注意力的能力。

The Ohio State University study compared how 51 women performed on a test of their attention after they ate either a meal high in saturated fat or the same meal made with sunflower oil, which is high in unsaturated fat. Interestingly, the meal was a breakfast offering, designed to mimic breakfast choices found at fast food restaurants.

俄亥俄州立大学的研究比较了51名女性在一项注意力测试中的表现，这些女性要么吃了含有高饱和脂肪的食物，要么吃了含有高不饱和脂肪的葵花籽油的食物。有趣的是，这顿饭是早餐供应，旨在模仿快餐店的早餐选择。

Researchers found participants’ attention span was worse after eating the high-saturated-fat meal than after they ate the meal containing a healthier fat, signaling a link between that fatty food and the brain.

研究人员发现，吃了高饱和脂肪的食物后，参与者的注意力持续时间比吃了含有健康脂肪的食物后更短，这表明高脂肪食物和大脑之间存在联系。

As a background, researchers were also looking at whether a condition called leaky gut, which allows intestinal bacteria to enter the bloodstream, had any effect on concentration. Participants with leakier guts performed worse on the attention assessment no matter which meal they had eaten.

作为背景，研究人员也在研究一种叫做“肠道高渗透性”的疾病是否会影响血液浓度。肠道高渗透性会让肠道细菌进入血液。不管吃的是哪一顿饭，那些肠道高渗透性的参与者在注意力评估中的表现都更差。

The loss of focus after a single meal was eye-opening for the researchers.

对研究人员来说，吃一顿饭后就能让注意力不集中有点让人大开眼界。

“Most prior work looking at the causative effect of the diet has looked over a period of time. And this was just one meal — it’s pretty remarkable that we saw a difference,” said Annelise Madison, lead author of the study and a graduate student in clinical psychology at The Ohio State University.

“以往大多数研究饮食的因果关系的工作都是在一段时间后体现出来的。这仅仅是一顿饭——我们注意到了这个特殊的不同。”这项研究的主要作者、俄亥俄州立大学临床心理学研究生安妮丝麦迪逊表示。

Madison also noted that the meal made with sunflower oil, while low in saturated fat, still contained a lot of dietary fat.

麦迪逊还指出，葵花籽油虽然饱和脂肪含量低，但仍然含有大量的膳食脂肪。

“Because both meals were high-fat and potentially problematic, the high-saturated-fat meal’s cognitive effect could be even greater if it were compared to a lower-fat meal,” she said.

她说:“因为测试中的饮食都是高脂肪的，而且存在潜在的问题，与低脂肪餐相比，高饱和脂肪餐对认知的影响可能会更大。”

The study appears in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

这项研究发表在《美国临床营养学杂志》上。