Children who drink sugary drinks may be at increased risk of memory issues in later life, according to a new study.
American researchers gave a sugary drink to rats and then, when they were adults, gave them two memory tests to compare how they performed.
They found the hippocampus, a region of the brain integral to memory function, was impaired in soda-fed rodents and this led to memory issues.
The researchers believe the drink alters the gut microbiome of an individual and this in turn modifies the genes in the hippocampus impairing function.
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American researchers gave a sugary drink to rats and then, when they were adults, gave them two memory tests to compare how they performed
Rats were given either a diet of water, or water supplemented with an equivalent to fizzy pop sold in the shops.
‘Early life sugar consumption seems to selectively impair their hippocampal learning and memory,’ said study lead author Dr Emily Noble, at the University of Georgia.
Analysis of the gut microbiome in the rats also revealed the consumption of sweetened drinks had had a deleterious impact.
The sugar drinkers had larger populations of two particular species of gut bacteria: Parabacteroides distasonis and Parabacteroides johnsonii.
They gave injected bacteria into rats who had never had sugary drinks and found that they also developed hippocampus-related memory issues.
This, the researchers believe, is evidence that the cognitive impairment from fizzy drinks is as a result of the beverage altering an individual’s gut microbiome.
‘It was surprising to us that we were able to essentially replicate the memory impairments associated with sugar consumption not by transferring the whole microbiome, but simply by enriching a single bacterial population in the gut,’ said Dr Scott Kanoski, co-author of the study from the University of Southern California.
Children who drink sugary drinks may be at increased risk of memory issues in later life, according to a new study
The researchers then studied the genes in the brains of the rats and found they were different if they’d been fed sugary drinks.
The genes that were affected control how nerve cells transmit electrical signals to other nerve cells and how they send molecular signals internally.
While the study was performed on rats, the researchers believe the findings could also apply to humans.
In future studies, the team hopes to determine if changing habits, such as eating a healthier diet or increasing exercise, can reverse the harm to memory caused by elevated sugar consumption earlier in life.
The study is published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
The amount of sugar a person should eat in a day depends on how old they are, according to the NHS.
Children aged four to six years old should be limited to a maximum of 19g per day.
Seven to 10-year-olds should have no more than 24g, and children aged 11 and over should have 30g or less.
Meanwhile the NHS recommends adults have no more than 30g of free sugars a day.
