While quarantining ourselves inside our homes during the Coronavirus pandemic, we might feel low or depressed. Many of us found solace in cooking and eating heavy and hearty meals that included lot of junk foods. Our diets have gone down the hills being pushed by all the fatty foods that climbed to the top of our daily food menu. Although, it may give our mind some peace and relief, it may also take away some significant powder from it.
If the findings of a new research are to be believed, eating just one meal high in saturated fat can reduce our ability to concentrate and focus. The study results were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The researchers compared the performance of 51 women on a test of their attentiveness and concentration skills after they ate either a meal high in saturated fat or the same meal made with sunflower oil, which is high in unsaturated fat.
Their performance on the test was worse after eating the high-saturated-fat meal than after they ate the meal containing a healthier fat, signalling a link between that fatty food and the brain.
Annelise Madison, lead author of the study and a graduate student in clinical psychology at The Ohio State University said, "Most prior work looking at the causative effect of the diet has looked over a period of time. And this was just one meal -- it's pretty remarkable that we saw a difference."
"Because both meals were high-fat and potentially problematic, the high-saturated-fat meal's cognitive effect could be even greater if it were compared to a lower-fat meal," Madison said after noting that the meal made with sunflower oil, while low in saturated fat, still contained a lot of dietary fat.