Study Claims SSBs Consumed During Adolescence Could Impair Memory
An animal study presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB) held July 29-August 1, 2014, in Seattle, Washington, has reportedly claimed that “daily consumption of beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup or sucrose can impair the ability to learn and remember information, particularly when consumption occurs during adolescence.” According to a July 29, 2014, SSIB press release, University of Southern California researchers reported that, unlike adult rats given daily access to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), rats that consumed SSBs during adolescence “were impaired in tests of learning and memory capability.”
“[O]ur findings reveal that consuming sugar-sweetened drinks is also interfering with our brain’s ability to function normally and remember critical information about our environment, at least when consumed in excess before adulthood,” the lead researcher was quoted as saying. “In addition to causing memory impairment, adolescent sugar-sweetened beverage consumption also produced inflammation in the hippocampus, an area of the brain that controls many learning and memory functions . . . In many ways this region is a canary in the coal mine, as it is particularly sensitive to insult by various environmental factors, including eating foods that are high in saturated fat and processed sugar.”
Issue 533
