3 ways to age your brain faster

Does this sound familiar to you? It’s Monday morning, you have great intentions to eat well, exercise, get enough sleep. You know these are good for you and who doesn’t want to feel better? But sometime during the week, maybe later today, you start to rely on sugar or processed foods to get you through the day. Or maybe you will have a drink to take the edge off the end of the day or the week?

Unfortunately, these short-term solutions can have long-term consequences.

They are ageing your brain.

These three very common habits, sugar, high-fat, processed foods and alcohol can accelerate brain aging.

Sugar

Habitual sugar intake increases cognitive impairment.

First, your brain relies on sugar for fuel, but too much change our brains. Neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt and remodel, is important and it doesn’t stop as we get older. We can learn and adapt at any age, but adaptation can be positive or negative.

When it comes to getting a sugar fix, we need more and more to get the same reward. Too much sugar causes rewiring in our reward systems.

We get enough sugar to fuel our brain from whole foods. When we eat processed sugar it has no fibre or nutrients, it is absorbed quickly and is a straight hit of pleasure. People who eat high-fat and sugar diets rate their cravings for these snacks higher than people who don’t eat them. They also feel hungrier even when they are not. Researchers propose that these high sugar snacks increase cravings causing more sugar consumption.

This is bad news for our hippocampus, the memory centre of our brains. Eating a high sugar diet reduces new neuron growth and increases inflammation. Reducing the capacity of the hippocampus to function properly. Too much sugar reduces our brain’s capacity to learn and remember.

The average Canadian eats about 20 extra teaspoons of added sugar a day. The World Health Organization recommends no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar.

The good news, our brain’s neuroplasticity allows us to reset the neurons in our hippocampus if we reduce sugar consumption.

Processed Foods

In a study of almost 500,000 adults, processed meat consumption was linked to an increased risk of dementia. As little as four weeks on processed food, high-fat diet can lead to memory loss and brain inflammation in older animals.

North Americans are eating more processed and ultra-processed foods.  These are industrially made, ready-to-eat foods, that are full of additives, and have no whole food components. Foods that cause chronic diseases that indirectly affect our brains, like diabetes and heart disease as well as directly changing the brain by causing neuroinflammation.

Alcohol

Alcohol shrinks your brain. Less than one drink a day reduces brain volume and the more alcohol consumed the more the brain shrinks. New research on 36,000 adults, from the University of Pennsylvania, found that one drink a day reduces brain volume. This begins with less than one drink a day and rises.

A 50-year-old going from drinking half a glass of beer to a pint, or a glass of wine, daily ages the brain two years. Three drinks age the brain 3.5 years. This adds to the knowledge that alcohol shrinks grey matter and white matter in all areas of the brain.

Keep your brain fit

If you are in the habit of relying on sugar, processed foods or alcohol there is good news. Even though it feels hard to change it is possible. It only takes a few weeks to change your taste for sugary foods. Eating fruit as a snack is an easy substitute and a great source of natural sugars, as well as being low fat, high fibre and full of nutrients.

It is hard to eat too much whole fruit. Eating 10 servings of fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of having a stroke by 18%.

Switching to snacking on fruit and vegetables can improve your brain health.

Many people feel like their sugar cravings go up when they limit alcohol, especially wine. This is because wine is full of sugar. Two glasses of wine have more sugar than a glazed doughnut or 40 grams. Even substituting water for one glass of alcohol can have benefits.

It is easier to switch a habit than try to stop one. Try substitutions in your regular routine to keep your brain from premature aging.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla