A new study links what one eats to how one thinks.
The
research was performed using laboratory mice that consumed different
diets with varying levels of fat and sugar before facing a gamut of
tests—primarily mazes and basic puzzles — to monitor changes in their
mental and physical function. The researchers paid specific attention to
the types of gut bacteria present in each control group.
“Bacteria
can release compounds that act as neurotransmitters, stimulate sensory
nerves or the immune system, and affect a wide range of biological
functions,” Kathy Magnusson, a professor in the OSU College of
Veterinary Medicine and principal investigator with the Linus Pauling
Institute, said in a statement. “We’re not sure just what messages are
being sent, but we are tracking down the pathways and the effects.”
In
about four weeks, the mental and physical performances of the rats fed
on a high-fat, high-sugar diet started to drop significantly, especially
when one or more variables in the test changed. One of the most
disparate physiological factors within the groups of mice, and the
suspected reason for the decreased brain function, was gut bacteria.
People
have been paying more attention to their guts than ever. Yogurt
companies are using the term “probiotic” to peddle their sugary treats
to would-be health junkies, and celebrities like sportscaster Erin
Andrews are now digestive health spokespeople for hire, trying to
finally make gut bacteria the hip and cool subject it deserved to be all
along. But the scientific community has also started paying keener
attention to those trillions of stomach-dwelling microflora as well.
One of the first studies to ever to link gut bacteria to brain function was performed by researchers at the Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family
Center for Neurobiology and Stress.
They took three groups of women and had one group eat yogurt loaded
with supplemental probiotics daily for four weeks, another group eat a
substance that looked and tasted like yogurt but had no probiotics, and
the third group was given nothing specific to eat. Not only did the
sans-probiotic group suffer in cognitive tests, just like the mice did
in the recent Oregon State study, but they also faltered in emotion
based tests, linking poor gut health to stress.
“This
work suggests that fat and sugar are altering your healthy bacterial
systems, and that’s one of the reasons those foods aren’t good for you.”
Magnusson said. “It’s not just the food that could be influencing your
brain, but an interaction between the food and microbial changes.”
The old wise tale, "you are what you eat," seems to have some scientific foundation.
This could explain why the LOST main characters, the survivors, were slow to adapt and adjust to the changing situation of survival. The diet they had was sharply diminished from their standard life style until junk food was reintroduced with the Hatch discovery and food drop. One of the nagging issues during the series was that the main characters never asked viewer questions to each other in order to figure out what was going on. It was more action without thinking than thinking of a plan then acting it out. The latter leaders who had better brain food diets such as Ben or Sayid seemed to grasp island situations better than Hurley, Charlie or even Jack.
