Impossible to avoid. For decades weve been surrounded by sweet and fatty food. And the body has not been dealing well with these eating out. But what about the brain and. Do our Mental Health our moons and our brain abilities suffer from the wrong kind of nutrition. We know it junk food is spiking as fast but science is telling us now that it might also be shrinking at right. Brain researchers have joined the dining table to study the effects of our eating habits datsun high in fat and sugar in a long term need to change isnt part of the gravy over to. Mrs aris infielder research on the bell and being science that spotlights a new facet of nutrition. Ritual and search for food science sugar results and a. The programming of the brain in short our brain is affected by whats on our plates. You know it starts with our very 1st meals even before birth. The brain is built up during pregnancy. Hours functions later on depends on how it has been nourished by the expectant mothers dying at over 9 months. A number of consequences of poor nutrition during gestation have been known for a long time. Todays scientists in australia are looking at the repercussions of nutrition on brain function. Released chunka a professor at the university of melbourne examined the behavior of babies after following the eating habits of 23000 pregnant women. We measure their intake of junk and closest food squeamish if theyre in type of a healthful food space with lots of fiber in a tree and so its a trial and then when i looked at the Emotional Health all 3 children over the 1st few years of loss of my saying months to 5 years of course taking into account things such as education income the mothers Mental Health parenting practices these sorts of things and what we saw very clearly was that mothers who white more junk and processed food drinks and salty snacks and you know tight space to during their pregnancy they chose a head cold things the high levy is such a good show and. And anger and tension. This disquieting correlation suggests that the mothers diet impacts the Mental Development of the baby though the link remains to be demonstrated on the biological level. In any case release jacka is convenient. So what we also saw in this logical wage and studies that the children start seem to be important as well independent of what. If children were a singer too much junk and processed foods and or not enough of the Healthful Foods they had more of these anger and aggressive top behaviors but also sadness exhausting worry not me. Since then professor jackers conclusions have been confirmed by studies in spain the netherlands and canada excess fountain sugar are now in the science of scientists working on the brain. Excesses and deficiencies junk food is often low on essential nutrients so it leaves the body and especially the nerve cells lacking. In this laboratory at the university of bordeaux scientists are studying the consequences of dietary deficiencies on mouse brains. This experiment is used to measure anxiety. The animal has the choice between exploring the lighted area or hiding in the shade. Or normal most takes the time to examine the lighted area. But this animal was deprived of a mega 3 fatty acids during his development omega 3 these are called good friends due to their benefits to the heart and artery. Instead of exploring the environment the mouse takes refuge in a dark corner its stressed anxious. The experiment has been reproduced many times on dozens of mice for researchers this strange behavior can be simply explained without omega 3 fatty acids the brain does not develop and function normally. Theyre needed because the brains grey matter is 90 percent fat which it cannot produce itself as it was the brain is the organ after adipose tissue thats the richest in polyunsaturated fatty acid or in the good 3 it hides so in a good 3 is indispensable because the body cannot make it we have to ingest it it has to come from the diet only. Chorley fish organ meat vegetable oils and seeds and not such as all men said longer in the main sources or may go through for humans but these foods have become scarce in the cuisine of industrialized countries. The amount of omega 3 that outweighs the brain is crucial for making brain cells more efficient because when these fatty acids are incorporated into the membranes of nerve cells they improve their Electrical Properties you know make a 3 rich neurons the signals propagate faster. The network is more efficient depriving the brain of omega 3 is linked to a risk that it will function less well. I look at the soldiers the general population is deficient a number 3 we have insufficient intake of them to get 3 so its important to Pay Attention to it especially in the prenatal developmental period during this period omega 3 embeds itself in massive quantities into the brain cells also in adolescence when theres often a change of food and during aging where the incorporation into the brain of a nigga 3 tends to be less effective so we must increase its intake of wanted a closer look at. The 1st rule for a brain to run at full speed is avoid deficiencies. For good nutrients and a very diet should be available what happens to neurons when meals are poor and above all always the same that is a problem that is now affecting the while living european hamster which thrived for a long time in the plains of frances us us richard. Its safe and 1960 s. Theres been a decline in the hamster population which is on the verge of extinction today and at the same time weve noticed an increase in the agricultural area where corn is cultivated. Only in our board wondered whether the collapse of the population was linked to the sudden glut of corn. So she did an experiment feeding hamsters exclusively corn. Although salvia during greeting we have served behavioral disturbances in females which resulted in hyper aggression and hyper sensitivity as soon as there was noise in the rooms around everyone. Change clothes. All the time. Above all what we did not expect is that these females would devour their young the 1st day after birth this behave. It was observed in more than 80 percent of females. But dietary deficiency was enough to make a hamster devalued and still different because a simple vitamin. Think of vitamin b 3 deficiency is at the origin of the of normal behavior when we supplemented them with vitamin b 3 in addition to their corn based diet they expressed quite normal behaviors and they began to nurse their young to raise them in the same way as the females that were fed a diversified diet says. The case of the cannibalistic hamsters is disturbing. Could an unbalanced diet also trigger aggressive violent behavior and humans. Are. Upset bird is a clinical psychologist and political advisor to the Dutch Ministry of justice his specialty nutrition and crime. Hes convinced that enriching food with vitamins fatty acids and minerals can reduce aggression but its a hypothesis that is difficult to test in normal life because so many factors and circumstances can influence our behavior and our impulses. In order to study nutrition without the influence of the many parameters he chose prisons as a nearly ideal setting. In a lot happening here in the netherlands we conducted a study of young prisoners in 8 different prisons who do all of the demand for 3 months we get them vitamins and minerals and fatty acid supplements and then we looked at the effect on their behavior. We measured it in 2 different ways at the father and the 1st we asked the detainees how aggressive they were and we asked the supervisors for their views on the issue. Above all we looked at the incident the number of times detainees were punished and we saw that solitary confinement had fallen dramatically of selling off the moment i had a saddle horse. In the group of inmates whose meals were improved the number of incidents was reduced by one 3rd of. What we may have the power to change our moves to stimulate certain impulses. But could the food on our plate also influence our decisions the ones we believe we make using our free will. As a venue and then mention when i pull or ask if they think that the food that they eat has an impact on health and most answered yes. When asked if diet can also influence thoughts and decisions very few people are willing to believe this is the case and this constant fit a lot in it for. However at the institute of psychology of the university of liberty in germany professor so young parklands for the 1st time proven it but her work reveals the mechanism by which food could influence our thoughts and for that the researcher has developed a rather original. Baronet. Imagine that you face the following dilemma. The money on the table is to be divided into 2 sums but its your partner a stranger who decides how it is to be distributed. I give you to yours and i keep a for me. If you accept the unfair offer you leave with a little money but much less than your partners. If you refuse no one wins anything so what would you do. Do you accept the offer and take the 2 year olds even if you feel cheated or do you refuse and leave with empty pockets but your head held high. Well it turns out surprisingly that whether youll take the money or not depends on what youve just eaten. And these are stored as part of this study we follow 24 people who came into the laboratory twice to have 2 different breakfasts. For us v. F. S. Things one is that we found that the same person made completely different decisions based on what the ate in the morning because on and then. To the test person the 2 breakfasts look the same in reality one is a far more protein rich than the other. The ratio of protein to sugar is the only parameter the changes. A few hours after the meal the subject takes several test on a computer. Today he accepts the offer his selfinterest outweighs his anger at the unfairness and he will leave with a little money in his pocket. Last. He mainly refused and one almost no. One fed it but on this subject having consumed a high protein breakfast in the morning was tolerant of unfair offers. On fitness and get what feel like yet conversely the subject to consume to high carbohydrate breakfast habits was less tolerant in the face of unfair offers yet. On average the subjects who had little protein rejected unfair offers this wise is often. But how can the surprising result be explained in their search for biological evidence for this observation the scientists carried out blood tests will send the blood to laboratory for analysis will measure the level of hormones and amino acids in the blood the hormones we are interested in insulin cortisol adrenaline and adreno cortico tropic hormone and for amino acids trip to fun and tyras in toto followed tools in. All of these substances the most important is tyrosine the amino acid is one Building Block of a protein that is key to brain function dopamine. This molecule ensures communication between neurons involved in motivation and risk taking. The results of the Blood Analysis show that subjects with higher levels of timers in their blood are more willing to accept the unfair offer. In other words what we eat can within hours subtly alter the chemistry of the brain and thus the communication between the neurons. Enough to guide some of our decisions. And experiments are continuing in the back to confirm this result the implications are wide ranging. The member then does that since i eat 3 times a day every day is i we realize that food has immense power that of modifying and shaping mankind norm and so its essential to think about how we can use food to promote our wellbeing and optimize our mental state or to own up to me and thats. Not only does an unbalanced diet affect our brain functions and behavior and our meal plan interfere with daily decisions it also becomes increasingly clear that diet plays a decisive role in our mood and possibly Mental Health. But what about junk food dripping with sugar and bad fats. What would happen if we ate more of that eat. This is the focus of research here in australia at the university of sydney. Moderate morris runs a laboratory where rats are fed the kind of junk food that you find in supermarkets for cheap fast food restaurants. Erics parents use a range of western foods at the time aden by all of us so we feed our rats meat pies chips cakes and biscuits the. Also foods that are virtually available and cheap so were modeling the western world. The 1st consequence of this diet the rat doubles its food ration is. The animal that never seems to share. But thats not the most surprising outcome. One of our chief interests is the impact of his diet on the animals memory and we can measure this is really in the rat using a task known as the novel object and novel place tossed. In this test the researcher places objects in the rats cage. The animal comes over immediately to examine that. Rodents are very curious by nature. Once its completed its examination and memorized its surroundings its temporarily removed we then place the animal in the arena with one object thats been shifted. By its return the rat spends more time examining the object that has changed places because it already knows the other objects there engraved in its memory. The rats are stuffed full of bad foods behave differently. What we observed is the animals eating a high fat diet or heart sugar diet or the combined high fat high sugar foods were less able to recognize to remember that that object had moved they explored the 2 objects about the sign that shows any payment at this special memory. The overfed run observed not only damaged special memory but also other malfunctions that sound a warning signal from the scientists they point to damages in the hippocampus a small region nestled in the center of the brain. Its essential for learning and the consolidation of memory. Of recent studies show that humans are too energy rich diet also interferes with your program perhaps. They say for example that the quality of peoples diets is related to the size of the hippocampus to the size of the gray and white matter value and theyre starting to be intervention studies so for example we say that only 4 days on junk food talk diet will have an impact on colpus the functions that are related to the hippocampus. Margaret morris is now seeking to understand how sugary and fatty foods disrupt the brain of her rats to the point of affecting their performance. She has a hypothesis namely eating too much sugar triggers an inflammatory reaction that spreads to the neurons. So in response to these foods theres a general inflammatory response all around the body this is being bogus crime in obesity but it now appears to be caught in acute response as well and what we find is that inflammatory molecules such as saudi constant increased your response to the don. And overly rich diet confuses the immune system. It responds by triggering an inflammatory reaction especially in fatty tissues. Are fat masses release substances that then propagate this inflammation throughout the body. Neurons were thought to be spared this effect behind the protective blood brain barrier the semi permeable membrane that separates the circulating blood vessels from the brain. So there is increased inflammation in the halls of body and we think that this may spread to the brain. Thats because the blood brain barrier which normally protects the brain from inflammatory molecules may be impaired in fact by the died and become leaky allowing traffic of molecules into the brain. And the inflammation infiltrates them in n. G. s and then triggers a surprising phenomena. In her laboratories trophy layers shown in her overfed mice that certain immune cells in the brain the micro glee all cells begin to devour neurons. The signal called these microbial souls within the brain are important because they can eat dead near a little hood when theyre deregulated especially in a situation of on Balance Nutrition they start to eat neurons the to realize their full by consuming these neurons in excess of numbers eventually they will destroy all participate in the destruction of Neural Networks this way that includes neurons that are alive and that should be functional divot for. This reaction of the microbe little cells could be filmed in vitro and. All the images show how energetically they move. The red objects or fragments of neurons that they ingest. In or obese mouse the activity becomes frenetic all this phenomenon is suspected of significantly affecting the functioning of the brain. Or the war. Weve been saying to people for 30 years dont eat things phage you might have a heart attack you might get cancer and diabetes it hasnt worked to change peoples behavior we hope that if people understand that what they put in their mouth is actually really essential to the health of there brian. And that of the children that might have a more profound impact on peoples daughtry choices. Microscope micro manipulator and ultrasensitive recorder. So view photo mentee is at the helm of an apparatus that can record the electrical activity of a single neuron. The principle is simple a slice of mouse brain is immersed in a liquid that keeps it alive. The researcher approaches it carefully with an electrode. Its a meticulous operation. Its usually thought here i go down the people that in the slice of brain you know do not and now we will approach this recording people at near the neuron to make contact. Thats it we made contact and now we will be able to measure the electrical activity of the neuro that he did it triggered in all. Its peak peaks that we see a potential areas for action or in the form of this is how neurons in code information. The time that elapses between the peaks is the message sent by the neurons. And then to normal now we will increase the glucose concentration in the bath and we will see if this cell responds to this increase in concentration of glucose. As it can be seen here this responds to the increase with more electrical activity but there is more potential for action than what could be seen here before the increasing to cause concentration. In this signal comes from a single cell but in the brain the neurons are all connected to each other. That makes the scientists suspect that glucose has the ability to modify the activity of an entire brain areas of the control emotions and pleasure. Is this how sugar ensures its grip on our will. This is for the moment only hypothesis but today sugar addiction. It is the subject of Intense Research in laboratories and what appears more and more clear is that the power of sugar is similar to that of a drug. Search of magic is one of the 1st to provide proof with a very simple experiment. Step one he raised rounds giving them cocaine in sugar. Land after weeks of his diet he presented the animals with a choice. Of clones of wallace through through we have the situation in which the animal has the choice between a lever that is connected to a syringe that contains a drug solution is and the drug in question is a hard drugs like cocaine and heroin and on the left a lever allows him to control a syringe that contains a sweet drink and there we see the animal chooses to take the sweet drink. The rats selected the sugar water 4 times more often than the drugs. It cant be called a glucose overdose but the repress of all desire is plain to see. If exposed to some so this experiment simply shows that sugar has more addictive potential dont we had imagined an isp or perhaps Even Stronger than the pull of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Also today we live in a Food Environment thats a little crazy. We find sugar in a lot of foods as we would expect it. Sugary drinks. But we also find sugar in foods that are not meant to be sweet such as how well soup when us we could cite other examples but its adding sugar to these foods the contributes to the fact that we make people addicted to it without them knowing it all through. Here at the Oregon Research institute the influence of sweet food on the human brain is being investigated. But this problem of researchers revealed is that a betrayal consumption of Energy Dense Food alters or a neural circuitry and exactly the same way of consumption of drugs appears. Eric stice recruited about 100 students half of whom regularly eat ice cream while the others never ate. They all came to the laboratory to drink a milkshake inside an m. R. I. Device and give the researchers a peek into their brain activity. Create casey so what were going to do today is give you a chart on the chair and record the brain activity in your entire brain as you receive an anticipated receiving shock and not check to look at the neural basis of consuming energy transfers. To test subjects can sip the milkshake through the tubes without moving their heads. What we found out is that the people who never eat ice cream you could trace the reward circuitry everything lit up just beautifully and that oxidative things are very strongly but in contrast the people who eat ice cream every day showed a very diminished response there is hardly any activation whatsoever illustrating the regular intake of Energy Dense Foods really reduces the pleasure you experience when you consume those foods. The reward circuit is a region of the brain that controls the feeling of pleasure it is particularly responsive to sugar consumption but eating too much ends up weakening its responsiveness so that at the same dose the sensations of pleasure are ultimately reduced. And eric stine says experiment reveals another more subtle perhaps more pernicious effect. After a diet too rich in sugar the brain becomes hypersensitive to images of food. The more and more you eat ice cream the less and less the reward circuitry is recruited when you consume ice cream but the more your reward circuitry is or is activated when you see q. Is a say you might get ice cream so your brain your reward circuitry fires off when you see an Ice Cream Store as youre driving down the street or you see a commercial for ice cream on the television the reward circuitry activates much more for people who eat ice cream all the time that it does for people who dont and prophesied in the absence of hunger that drives obesity and weight gain. This direct influence of food on our brain plays a crucial role in what we choose to eat each day. What happens in the brain at the moment we pick a dessert rather than an appetizer or fish rather than red meat who is really pulling the straight. Carlos for bureau and his team are leading researchers on food choices. What we really want is to find all the components all the genes the molecules the neurons which direct feeding decisions and for that we have to be able to look at very. Small effects. The simplicity of this animal model the fly makes it possible to explore new avenues and new hypotheses. To understand the feeding a view of the fly carlos will be our own has developed a machine that monitors the insects choices in great detail. When its touching the food which is in the other electrode weve told the process then we can measure that with a sensor here which is the same sensor which you use on your i pad on your i phone to detect a touch on the screen just out here we dont detect the touch of the street but the touch of the food and so we can move really know that i think that underlies the choice of to fly. But also when shes eating from the different foods how it eats how much it eats how fast it fell off and i really dissect all the details of the decisions which are controlled by the brain. Thanks to this technique hes been able to prove that the main reason for choosing food is 1st of all deficiencies. Naturally flies that lack protein will choose. Routine rich food. But looking more closely the bureau observed that this is not always the case. Sometimes actually we had some flies which didnt have this strong urge to eat protein and then we were wondering why that was the case right and so when we looked at it turned out that the florist which had no craving for protein had got microbes and so from following up on many experiments we could show that there are 2 specific got microbes which when they are in the fly they suppress protein for protein appetite and therefore these 2 microbes have a very important influence on protein cravings influence. Flies when choosing their diet are influenced by the bacteria in their gut. This unexpected discovery raises an important question does the human intestinal flora called the micro biome also act on our brains. Do our gut bacteria play a role in our food preferences. At the University College cork in ireland jon cryer and does Pioneering Research on the micro biome. Hes been able to prove that gut bacteria can influence certain behaviors in animals as well. When you take microbes from highly anxious mice and transplant them to normal anxious mice they become much more anxious and vice versa that even when you take them from normal you can normalize the stress response and then. Scientists now even consider the micro biome to be a kind of intermediary a link between food and the brain the main factor that influences the composition of these microbes is the food we take dyess and the diversity of the diet is really important from the moment were born until we die in shaping the composition of the microbes and so were beginning to realize the importance that what we eat has on whats there in our microbes and how thats influencing whats going on in our brain. Our well being depends in one way or another on our micro biome. A diet that is good for our mood is 1st and foremost a diet we do suitable for the bacteria in our intestines. This is led to the idea of using food to pamper the brain and maintain Mental Health. And it is the famous mediterranean diet because the scientists excited. The traditional mediterranean diet is really high in a dog this ranks of plant food so lots of different leafy greens and different colored vegetables but also our fruits very importantly legumes so this is your beans and lentils and chickpeas nuts nuts and seeds fish and of course always boil all the oil is a very important component of the mediterranean diet and we think that that diversity leads to more diversity in the guttmacher bio shock the one provided that weve been out gosh and that diversity in the god has been linked to good health outcomes. Or we ran the 1st study last year where we recruited 67. 00 people with major depression they received autrey support with a clinical doc to sion now over a 3 month period this trial took place and at the end of that when we measured their depression again we saw that the degree of china in their diet correlated with the degree of change in their depression so the more they move towards a mediterranean diet the more their depression improved. Using diet to surf the brain. Its an idea thats catching up. Scientists are now exploring all kinds of clues. Spices used for centuries in traditional indian medicine are now being studied for their benefit for Mental Health. Great fruits and berries over a weekend on expectations the poll. The phenols they contain might be able to rejuvenating neurons and the decline. Of our red fruits and spices the miracle ingredients for eternally young brewer odds. Its still too early to say for sure. Researchers are only just beginning to one cover the secrets of the remarkable relationship between nutrition and the brain. The ideal menu for our little gray cells is still largely unknown but a balanced diverse diet which does without processed food and sugar and favors fruits and vegetables seems so far to be the best recipe for preserving the mental faculties. Like grandmother said you are what you eat so eat well and what were realizing now is that science is beginning to understand how true she was the 4th oh like that if we limited the deficiencies with that reduced crime a little too early to say what we do know is that when you bet on Healthy Eating it has effects on behavior to kill us and the more we overeat snickers bars we become hypervigilant to snicker cures and we need a lot of snickers and we create that monster are some sort the best thing to do if you have kids or feed them Healthy Foods are not going to be used to getting this kind of crop. I cant believe i just said crops are. So much mobility for everyone. Thats the vision of immune of start up. There are some new science shows how cars can be different. Because whats mine is also your. Bread. The human body doubles you feel good shape it is the metropolitan motor of our diabetes our liver is all main thats about it all of that gets rid off many tops of. The consumption of alcohol and conflict in its house. By causing fatty liver and cirrhosis so how can you protect your liver. Good shape. 16 tom d. W. In the eye of climate change. Africas most. Whats in store for the play. List for the future. Come for to make a suit to incite could counter. This is t w news live from the u. N. Take greece on a new lifeline for syria the Security Council votes to extend chairman a terry and 8 deliveries to the rebel held north russia and china and safest enter the country through a single Border Crossing also coming up 25 years on from europes worst atrocities since the 2nd