It's no secret that eating hamburgers and fries could affect your waist line but new research has found it can also take a toll on your brain.
Researchers found that higher intake of a western diet by 14-year-olds had scored lower in cognitive tasks by the age of 17.
Within the western dietary patterns, the study found participants with a high intake of take-away food, deep fried potatoes, red and processed meat and soft drinks had negative associations that affected their reaction time, mental ability, visual attention, learning and memory.
While participants who had higher consumption of fruits and leafy green vegetables, had a positive cognitive performance.
Researcher Dr Anett Nyaradi told Science Network that it could be due to increased micronutrient content from leafy green vegetables, which has linked to enhanced cognitive development.
Dr Nyaradi said several factors may be at play in this diet-related decline in cognitive skills, including the level of omega-6 fatty acids in fried foods and red meat.
Metabolic pathways function best with a balanced 1:1 ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, but the western diet can shift this to a 1:20 or 1:25 ratio, according to Science Network.
Dr Nyardi told Science Network that high intake of saturated fat and simple carbohydrates has been linked to impairment in the functioning of the hippocampus, which is a brain structure centrally involved in learning and memory that increases its volume during adolescence.
'Adolescence represents a critical time period for brain development. It is possible that poor diet is a significant risk factor during this period…indeed, our findings support this proposition,' she said.
'These findings have important implications for future health policies and health promotion programs
The University of Western Australia and the Telethon Kids Institute observed 602 participants from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study.
Each participant were required to fill out a food frequency questionnaire at the age of 14 to identify the factor analysis of 'healthy' and 'Western' dietary patterns.
When they turned 17, a cognitive performance was assessed using a computerised cognitive battery of tests that included six tasks.

參考譯文：
吃漢堡包和薯?xiàng)l可以導(dǎo)致肥胖，這已經(jīng)不是什么秘密和新聞。不過(guò)，一項(xiàng)新研究認(rèn)為，攝入西方模式飲食還會(huì)使人變笨。

來(lái)自西澳大利亞大學(xué)的研究人員對(duì)西澳大利亞妊娠隊(duì)列的602名孩子進(jìn)行了研究，從14歲開始記錄他們的飲食，并進(jìn)行“健康”和“西方”飲食因素分析。當(dāng)他們長(zhǎng)到17歲時(shí)，從六個(gè)方面進(jìn)行認(rèn)知能力測(cè)試。

測(cè)試結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，在西方飲食模式下，受試者攝入大量快餐食品、油炸土豆、紅肉和加工肉類和汽水等，與反應(yīng)時(shí)間、心理能力、視覺(jué)注意力、學(xué)習(xí)和記憶能力呈負(fù)相關(guān)。相反，攝入較多水果和綠葉蔬菜的“健康飲食”模式則對(duì)于認(rèn)知能力有正面影響。

研究者認(rèn)為，綠葉蔬菜富含微量營(yíng)養(yǎng)素可能與提高認(rèn)知能力相關(guān)。而認(rèn)知能力的負(fù)面影響可能涉及多方面因素，比如油炸食品和紅肉中的ω-6脂肪酸水平等。

飲食中ω-3與ω-6脂肪酸1:1均衡比例最有利于人體代謝，但西方的飲食模式下這一比例可能是1:20甚至1:25。
也已經(jīng)有研究認(rèn)為，大量攝入飽和脂肪和簡(jiǎn)單碳水化合物不利于青少年學(xué)習(xí)和記憶相關(guān)的海馬結(jié)構(gòu)和功能的發(fā)育成長(zhǎng)。

研究者指出，青春期是大腦發(fā)育的關(guān)鍵時(shí)期，這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)這個(gè)時(shí)期不良的飲食習(xí)慣對(duì)于腦發(fā)育是一個(gè)顯著性危險(xiǎn)因素，應(yīng)該引起人們的關(guān)注，并對(duì)于未來(lái)的衛(wèi)生政策和健康促進(jìn)計(jì)劃具有重要意義。

原始來(lái)源：http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2769050/Eating-burgers-fries-doesn-t-just-make-fat-makes-stupid-well.html