By Carol A. Cates, MSN, MBA, RN
Chief Nursing Officer
Odessa Regional Medical Center
I try to stay current in my crazy job, so I read quite a few nursing and medical journals. Unfortunately, I can’t read everything, so I do try to watch topics that work with my job specifics or have a big impact on the patient populations that the hospital serves.
One of those areas is dementia. Unfortunately, in the hospital we see quite a bit of dementia, to the point that it sometimes seems like most people over age 65 have some level of dementia. That is not true of course, it is the opposite, most people over 65 are healthy, active, and mentally sound. Which, of course, is why we don’t see them in the hospital.
One of the articles I read recently on dementia was based on a presentation at the 2022 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, and it showed a significant link between cognitive decline and “ultra-processed” foods.
“Ultra-processed” foods for the purposes of this study were defined as food that contain artificial flavorings, artificial colorings, emulsifiers, and other cosmetic additives. In other words, most of the things that are pre-packaged, processed, and ready-to-eat foods. The things that make our busy multi-tasking days easier. We’ve known for years that processed foods increase the risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. So, I am not completely surprised that those foods are not good for our brains either. But what really amazed and quite frankly scared me about this study is how little of those foods it takes to cause a big decline in cognitive function.
The study followed 10,000 people in Brazil for 10 years. Half of the participants were women, half were white, half were college educated. The average age for people in the study was 51. Over the years, the subjects were given cognitive testing which included immediate and delayed word recall, word recognition, and verbal fluency, and were asked about their diets. They found that people who had more than 20% of their calories come from ultra-processed foods showed a 28% faster rate of cognitive decline than those that ate fewer processed foods.
20% is not a lot of calories, unfortunately. For an average adult, nutritionists recommend about 2,000 calories daily to maintain a healthy weight. 20% of 2,000 calories is only 400 calories. I looked at a couple of well-known fast food restaurant websites, and the lowest calorie counts I could find were for the kid’s meals and even there the lowest calorie count I could find was 390 calories, what most of us eat on those menus are double or even triple that calorie count. The average American gets nearly 57% of their calories from ultra-processed foods, in children and teens that percentage is closer to 70%. In the study the biggest consumers of ultra-processed foods were young (under age 40) white women with higher educations who had never smoked and used little to no alcohol. Everything but the age part is me. That was eye-opening to say the least.
This study is just one more piece of evidence that what you put into your mouth matters. Food can be a medicine that heals, and it can also be a poison that slowly kills. Good diet choices are hard. It takes more time and effort to make a meal from scratch than go by a drive through. It’s easier to buy lunch or grab something out of a vending machine than to pack a lunch. Unfortunately, those easy choices are the ones that generally lean heavily on the food as a poison side of the equation.
I will be honest; this is absolutely a case of the pot calling the kettle black. I eat way, way too much processed food. But I am trying to be better. This study makes me want to try even harder. I want to see my grandkids grow up and know who they are when they do it. I am hoping you feel the same about your diet after reading this. If you need help figuring out the best healthy choices for food and how to cook in a healthier way, a consult with a registered dietician is a great place to start. Your primary health care provider can help you get a referral to see a dietician, just ask.
