吃垃圾食品会很快破坏你的记忆力和自控力

Eating A Junk Food Diet Quickly Undermines Your Memory And Self-Control

吃垃圾食品会很快破坏你的记忆力和自控力

Just one week of eating a diet packed full of waffles, burgers, and sugary cereals could turn your brain into a milkshake-like mush (not literally, of course).

仅仅一周的饮食，包括华夫饼、汉堡和含糖谷类食品，就会使你的大脑变成奶昔一样的糊状物(当然不是字面上的糊状物)。

A new study has found that consuming a Western-style diet rich in junk food can subtly yet rapidly impair brain function in your hippocampus. By no coincidence, this is a brain region associated with memory and appetite regulation. Any impairment of this region's function could result in people experiencing a greater desire to eat junk food even if they are full.

一项新的研究发现，食用富含垃圾食品的西式饮食可以微妙而迅速地损害你的海马体的大脑功能。绝非巧合，这是一个与记忆和食欲调节相关的大脑区域。该区域功能的任何损伤都可能导致人们更想吃垃圾食品，即使他们已经吃饱了。

“Junk food may then act to undermine self-control by increasing desire,” the researchers explained in a press release.

研究人员在一份新闻稿中解释说:“垃圾食品可能会通过增加欲望来破坏自我控制。”

“When we see cake, chocolate or crisps, for example, we remember how nice they are to eat. When we are full the hippocampus normally suppresses these memories, reducing our desire to eat,” they added. “We found that lean healthy young people exposed to one week of a junk food diet developed impaired hippocampal function and relatively greater desire to eat junk food when full.”

“例如，当我们看到蛋糕、巧克力或薯片时，我们会记得它们吃起来有多美味。当我们吃饱时，海马体通常会抑制这些记忆，降低我们的食欲。”他们补充道。“我们发现，瘦削健康的年轻人在一周的垃圾食品饮食后，海马功能受损，吃饱后想吃垃圾食品的欲望相对更强。”

Reported in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers from Macquarie University and Griffith University in Australia gathered 110 “lean, healthy” people in their twenties. Half simply ate their normal diet for a week, while the other half were fed a so-called “Western-style diet,” including super-sugary cereal, fast-food meals, and Belgian waffles. Before, during, and after the human guinea pigs had eaten these diets, they were all subjected to tests that looked to assess their cognitive skills and everyday memory, as well as a “wanting and liking test” that assessed their cravings and appetite.

据《皇家学会开放科学》杂志报道，澳大利亚麦考瑞大学和格里菲斯大学的研究人员收集了110名20多岁的“苗条、健康”的人。其中一半的人只吃了一周的正常饮食，而另一半则吃了所谓的“西式饮食”，包括超级甜麦片、快餐和比利时华夫饼。在人类豚鼠食用这些食物之前、期间和之后，他们都接受了测试，以评估他们的认知能力和日常记忆，以及一个“想要和喜欢的测试”，以评估他们的渴望和胃口。

The findings showed people on the fatty high-sugar "Western-style diet" had decreased memory and cognitive function just a week after taking up the diet. The specific tests they used pointed towards the hippocampus, which plays a major role in learning and memory, as the possible culprit. The “wanting and liking test” also showed that the people on the Western diet tended to crave more junk food and remained hungry, despite eating a similar number of calories.

研究结果显示，食用高脂肪、高糖的“西式饮食”的人在开始食用一周后，记忆力和认知功能有所下降。他们使用的具体测试指出，在学习和记忆中起主要作用的海马体可能是罪魁祸首。“想要和喜欢”的测试还显示，西方饮食的人倾向于渴望更多的垃圾食品，尽管他们摄入的热量相当。

Promisingly, however, the “wanting and liking” tests were repeated three weeks later after volunteers returned to their regular eating pattern, showing that cravings and hunger levels had returned to normal. This suggests that the effect of the Western diet on appetite control was only short term and could be promptly reversed.

然而，令人鼓舞的是，“想要和喜欢”的测试在志愿者恢复正常饮食模式三周后再次进行，结果显示他们的渴望和饥饿感水平已经恢复正常。这表明，西方饮食对食欲控制的影响只是短期的，可以迅速逆转。

This is far from the first piece of research to see how junk food affects your brain. A study released last month showed how sugar influences the brain in ways similar to those seen if you have an addiction. Even after just 12 days of high sugar intake, the researchers could see major changes in the brain's dopamine and opioid systems – just like an addictive drug.

这远不是第一个研究垃圾食品如何影响大脑的研究。上个月公布的一项研究表明，糖是如何影响大脑的，其影响方式与上瘾时相似。即使只摄入了12天的高糖，研究人员也可以观察到大脑中多巴胺和阿片系统的主要变化——就像上瘾的药物一样。