High Fat, High Anxiety?
Research from the University of Colorado Boulder suggests that turning to fatty foods may increase anxiety — at least in rats. Half of the rats in the study were fed a standard diet of about 11 percent fat for nine weeks; the others were given a high-fat diet of 45 percent fat.
The study found that high-fat diets were associated with altered gut bacteria, behavior changes, and changes in brain chemistry linked to anxiety. The animals on a high-fat diet gained weight and showed reduced gut bacterial diversity. They also had higher amounts of a type of bacteria called Firmicutes and less of Bacteroidetes — a scenario that has been associated with obesity. What’s more, the high-fat diet also increased expression of genes involved in serotonin neurotransmitter production in brain areas related to stress and anxiety. More research is needed to ascertain if these results have any correlation in humans.
Source
biolres.biomedcentral/articles/10.1186/s40659-024-00505-1
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