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：
吃漢堡包和薯條可以導致肥胖，這已經不是什么秘密和新聞。不過，一項新研究認為，攝入西方模式飲食還會使人變笨。

來自西澳大利亞大學的研究人員對西澳大利亞妊娠隊列的602名孩子進行了研究，從14歲開始記錄他們的飲食，并進行“健康”和“西方”飲食因素分析。當他們長到17歲時，從六個方面進行認知能力測試。

測試結果發現，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，與反應時間、心理能力、視覺注意力、學習和記憶能力呈負相關。相反，攝入較多水果和綠葉蔬菜的“健康飲食”模式則對于認知能力有正面影響。

研究者認為，綠葉蔬菜富含微量營養素可能與提高認知能力相關。而認知能力的負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。
也已經有研究認為，大量攝入飽和脂肪和簡單碳水化合物不利于青少年學習和記憶相關的海馬結構和功能的發育成長。

研究者指出，青春期是大腦發育的關鍵時期，這項研究發現這個時期不良的飲食習慣對于腦發育是一個顯著性危險因素，應該引起人們的關注，并對于未來的衛生政策和健康促進計劃具有重要意義。

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