A recent study that was published in the journal Biological Research, discovered that following a particular diet leads to an increase in anxiety levels. Let’s try to understand more.
Leaving aside for a moment the effects of the intermittent diet, this time let’s talk specifically about a high fat diet and mainly saturated fats from animal products. This diet conducted by some laboratory mice, has altered the intestinal microbiome changing their behavior.
The team led by Christopher Lowry, professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder, therefore tried to shed light on the relationship between saturated fats and anxiety. To do this, adolescent male rats were used, which were divided into two groups, each fed different diets for nine weeks.
One group received a standard laboratory rat diet with about 11 percent fat. The other group received a diet with about 45% fat, mainly saturated fats from animal products. The researchers then used fecal samples to monitor rat microbiomes during the study. After nine weeks, behavioral tests were also administered. The results are clear.
The rats that were fed the high-fat diet they didn’t just gain weightthe researchers report, but they also had a significantly lower number of intestinal bacteria compared to rats in the control group. But apparently, that’s not all.
The researchers also noticed high expression of three genes in the group following the high-fat diet: tph2, htr1a And slc6a4. These are genes involved in various ways in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that carries out a series of important functions for our body.
The increased expression of these three genes was particularly pronounced in dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), i.e. one region of the brainstem associated with stress and anxietyfundamental for the production and sorting of serotonin.
“Thinking that only a high-fat diet can alter the expression of these genes in the brain It is extraordinary. The high-fat group essentially had the molecular signature of one state of high anxiety in the brain“, says Lowry himself.
As the authors state, in addition to well-known risks such as obesity or heart disease, these results therefore suggest that anyone who eats significant amounts of saturated fat should also consider potential mental health effects.
After discovering that there are 6 variants of depression, it is worth underlining that according to the World Health Organization, approximately 300 million people in the world live with an anxiety disorder, making anxiety disorders i most common of all mental disorders. This is why similar studies are fundamental to raise awareness among the entire world population.
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