When stressed out, many of us turn to junk food for solace. But new University of Colorado Boulder research suggests this strategy may backfire. The study found that in animals, a high-fat diet disrupts resident gut bacteria, alters behavior and, through a complex pathway connecting the gut to the brain, influences brain chemicals in ways that fuel anxiety.
Everyone knows that these are not healthy foods, but we tend to think about them strictly in terms of a little weight gain. If you understand that they also impact your brain in a way that can promote anxiety, that makes the stakes even higher." Christopher Lowry, lead author, professor of integrative physiology at CU Boulder Lowry's team divided adolescent rats into two groups: Half got a standard diet of about 11% fat for nine weeks; the others got a high-fat diet of 45% fat, consisting mostly of saturated fat from animal products.
The typical American diet is about 36% fat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Throughout the study, the researchers collected fecal samples and assessed the animals' microbiome, or gut bacteria. After nine weeks, the animals underwent behavioral tests.
When compared to the control group, the group eating a high-fat diet, not surprisingly, gained weight. But the animals also showed significantly less diversity of gut bacteria. Generally speaking, more bacterial diversity is associated with better health, Lowry explained.
They also hosted far more of a category of bact.
