Can sugar make you forgetful? Slow your brain? A recent study suggests sugar sabotages learning and memory. We are all familiar with the oft-repeated ‘too much sugar causes obesity’, but little attention has been paid to its impact on memory.. This is changing.
New Zealanders consume a whopping 57.5 kg of sugar every year . This is more than double the intake recommended by the World Health Organisation. That’s about half a cup a day. Imagine pouring half a cup of sugar into a pile every day, for 365 days! You would have a sugar mountain.
So, what’s the link between sugar and memory? Neuroscientists have known for a long time that short-term memory problems are caused by the slowing of blood flow to the memory-crucial hippocampus during the ageing process. The hippocampus, deep within each temporal lobe of the brain, functions as a memory "gateway" through which new memories must pass before entering permanent storage in the brain. Recently, Scott Small of the Columbia University Medical Centre discovered high blood sugar levels created the same problem. A consistently high sugar level causes the body to pump out excess insulin, causing inflammation and excess oxidants, stressing the brain. It’s true that coffee with sugar may have you up and running in the morning, but over the long term, consuming a large volume of sugar, or foods that are quickly converted to sugar by your body, will prematurely age your brain. Our brains are ageing quite fast enough on their own without adding the rocket fuel of too much sugar to the mix!
Look out for the hidden sugars – fructose added to soft drinks, in bread, condiments, sauces, and so on. Check those food labels. Nutritionists are particularly concerned, not about the naturally occurring fructose in fruits, which also contain important antioxidants, but by the high-fructose corn syrup added into manufactured food products as a sweetener and preservative.
For brain health, look for low-sugar, nutritious and delicious alternatives. You will soon notice sharper, clearer thinking.
Have you been exercising you brain with the Grown Ups puzzles? If not, find your favourite today.
Remember, stemming from our research and my work at the Christchurch Memory Clinic, my sister Gillian Eadie, based in Auckland, and I have founded the Brain and Memory Foundation. Do visit our Foundation website to read articles about memory and to receive six issues of the Brain Tune memory course (absolutely free!). For further reading about ways you can improve your memory, obtain copies of our books here.
Biography:
Dr. Allison Lamont is founder and memory consultant at the Christchurch Memory Clinic. Allison’s ground-breaking research into memory in older, healthy adults has excited interest in many parts of the world.
1. The New Zealand sugar (fructose) fountain: Time to turn the tide. Thornley, McRobbie, & Jackson (2010).
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