Your Brain on Sugar

February 2008 | Healthy Living :: Body Talk

by Liz Barker

Not just a hazard to your teeth and waistline, slurping up too many sugary beverages may increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. To test the effects of sugar overload on the progression of Alzheimer’s (a condition linked to both obesity and diabetes), researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham fed a group of mice a diet that was 10 percent comprised of sugar water. After 25 weeks, the sugar-fed mice had gained about 17 percent more weight than mice that followed a regular, balanced diet. They also displayed poorer learning abilities and memory retention, and their brains contained more than twice as many amyloid plaque deposits (a hallmark of Alzheimer’s).

The human equivalent of the study’s mouse diet would be about five cans of soda per day, the study’s authors note. But since mice have a higher metabolism, they add, less sugar intake could have a similar impact in humans.