Experts Say These Foods Damage Your Brain

What do you do to keep your mind sharp? While it’s good to keep your brain limber and active by doing activities like crossword puzzles, word searches, or Wordle, your diet also has an effect on brain function, and experts say that some of the things you eat might actually reduce it. In other words, you are what you eat.

According to a report in HuffPost, one of the things you should avoid is margarine because it causes blood vessels to the brain to constrict, says Dr. Shae Datta, a neurologist at NYU. “Better to stick to olive oil and real butter,” Datta says. Soda and beer are also no-no’s, experts say. Soda’s high concentration of simple sugars can damage the brain’s blood vessels, and beer contains empty calories and a neurotoxin that hurt one’s central and peripheral nervous system, says Tufts Medical Center’s Dr. Byran Ho.

Even supposedly healthy foods can be bad for your head. Most protein powders contain too much added sugar and artificial sweeteners, while the process used to decaffeinate coffee uses chemicals that increase the chances of brain cancer, according to Sean Callan, a neuroscientist, and CEO of Ellipse Analytics.

The report also says that one of the worst foods for us to enjoy is, brace yourself, French fries! This is horrible news! I guess we kind of knew this. Neurologist Dr. Pedram Navab shares the bad news “A diet that incorporates fatty foods like French fries can damage blood vessels that supply the brain, causing cognitive impairment,” he said. “It reduces the blood-brain barrier integrity and leads to neuronal damage of the hippocampus, a part of the brain that is instrumental for learning and memory.”

I think it's safe to say that even though we've learned about these foods that are bad for our brains, we're not going to stop enjoying fries and beer, but maybe we'll cut back a bit. Then again, maybe not.

A new Consumer Reports study has ranked the riskiest foods. They analyzed data from the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Agriculture between 2017 and 2022. Their researchers focused on "widely consumed foods" that had recalls over a specific duration of time.

According to Consumers Reports, the CDC estimates that 48 million people each year fall ill from salmonella, listeria, E. coli, or other bacteria or viruses in food. They said most recover on their own after a few days. But about 130,000 people are hospitalized and 3,000 die from foodborne illnesses yearly.

Some of the foods that are ranked at the top of the list include bagged salads, poultry products, and deli meats. The top five are leafy greens, deli cheese and meat, ground beef, onions, and poultry. Bagged salads and other leafy greens ranked number one on the list. They found 50 different recalls linked to them since 2017. Also, it has the most caused deaths. Last on the list at number ten is flour. Unlike leafy greens, flour has had zero total deaths.

"We aren’t saying people need to avoid these foods entirely," says Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at CR, who led the analysis. "After all, these foods are all usually safe, and many of them are in fact important parts of a healthy diet." Ronholm continued to say in Consumers Report that the list underscores the "importance of following best food safety practices with all of your foods, including knowing how to track, and respond, to food recalls when they happen." Read the entire list, and learn how you can reduce your risk at Consumer Reports.