Ultra-processed foods will damage your brain! | Prof Felice Jacka

Get science-based nutrition advice straight to your inbox: bit.ly/46BPTYz There is an alarming surge in ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption, especially in the UK and the US, where about two-thirds of caloric intake is from UPF. This raises grave health concerns, with emerging evidence revealing the detrimental effects of UPF on brain health and overall well-being. With the majority of our calories coming from UPF, the risk of chronic physical and mental health conditions is escalating. Scientists are now uncovering the intricate mechanisms behind this link, particularly how UPF affects the brain. In today’s episode, we welcome back Prof. Felice Jacka OAM. Felice is Alfred Deakin Professor of Nutritional Psychiatry and the Director of the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University in Australia. She is also the founder of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research and the world’s leading researcher on the impact of food on the brain and mental health. And she is back on the show to delve deeper into the links between UPF and brain health, specifically the hippocampus which is responsible for cognition (learning and memory) and mental health. If you want to uncover the right foods for your body, head to joinzoe.com/podcast, and get 10% off your personalized nutrition program. Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:55 Quick fire questions 04:07 What is ultra processed food? 05:25 What is the NOVA classification? 08:09 How does food impact the brain? 10:26 What does the hippocampus do to influence our brain function? 12:57 Is there a link between the size of the hippocampus and diet quality? 13:41 Is there a link between the quality of diet and depression? 20:48 What are the effects of long term dietary habits? 21:42 Is there a link between poor diet and dementia 23:32 Is there a link between autism and diet? 24:14 How real is the link between diet and dementia? 25:14 What is the oral microbiome? 28:34 New trial between whole foods and vitamin enriched nutritional foods 29:53 How does processing foods impact the makeup of foods on a molecular level? 32:41 How does the biodiversity around us affect our body? 33:33 How does the industrialized food environment impact us? 36:17 How strong is the evidence for this? is it comparable to smoking? 39:59 Practical tips to help with our diet 40:59 How does reducing consumption of UPF affect us? 42:17 How to cut down on UPF 45:08 Is it too late to change your diet? 47:20 Does exercise impact our brain? 49:23 Summary 54:53 Goodbyes/Outro Mentioned in today’s episode: The SMILES trial, published in BMC Medicine Link: bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12… Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Mental Health from The Food & Mood Centre, Deakin University Link: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35807749/ Western diet is associated with a smaller hippocampus, from BMC Medicine Link: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4563885/ Find Felice on the Food & Mood Centre website: foodandmoodcentre.com.au/team/felice-jacka/ Follow Felice on Instagram: www.instagram.com/proffelicejacka/ Follow ZOE on Instagram: www.instagram.com/zoe/ Episode transcripts are available here: zoe.com/learn/category/podcasts Is there a nutrition topic you’d like us to cover? Email us at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to cover it.

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