Consuming too many sugary drinks may lead to memory problems and brain inflammation in teens, a new study on mice suggests.
Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) found that adolescent rats were at an increased risk of suffering negative health effects from sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.
Adolescent rats that freely consumed large quantities of liquid solutions containing sugar or high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in concentrations comparable to popular sugar-sweetened beverages experienced memory problems and brain inflammation, and became pre-diabetic.
Neither adult rats fed the sugary drinks nor adolescent rats who did not consume sugar had the same issues.
"The brain is especially vulnerable to dietary influences during critical periods of development, like adolescence," said Scott Kanoski, corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
The study tested a total of 76 rats. About 35 to 40 per cent of the rats' caloric intake was from sugar or HFCS.
The rats were then tested in mazes that probe their spatial memory ability.
Adolescent rats that had consumed the sugary beverages, particularly HFCS, performed worse on the test than any other group - which may be the result of the neuroinflammation detected in the hippocampus, Kanoski said.
The hippocampus is a part of the temporal lobe located deep within the brain that controls memory formation. People with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias often suffer damage to the hippocampus.
"Consuming a diet high in added sugars not only can lead to weight gain and metabolic disturbances, but can also negatively impact our neural functioning and cognitive ability," Kanoski said.
The study was published in the journal Hippocampus.
