As if science hadn't provided us with enough reasons to try and keep excessive calories out of our diet—fat chance that'll happen—it had to go and up the ante by messing with our heads. Yup, a new study says that overeating may double your risk of memory loss. So that's why a pint of ice cream is a must-have when recovering from a break-up?
According to the study, which appears in the American Academy of Neurology, the more calories you eat the higher chances you have of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) when you are older. Disturbing, since "MCI is the stage between normal memory loss that comes with aging and early Alzheimer’s disease."
To come to this depressing conclusion, researchers studied 1,233 people between 70 and 89 who were free of dementia. After figuring out their daily caloric intake, researchers then tracked their subjects. "The odds of having MCI more than doubled for those in the highest calorie-consuming group compared to those in the lowest calorie-consuming group. The results were the same after adjusting for history of stroke, diabetes, amount of education, and other factors that can affect risk of memory loss." On the plus side? Those Goldilocks whose daily caloric intake was between 1,526-2,143 showed no significant increase in risk from those who ate less than 1,526 calories a day.
Maybe those mean Health Department ads are useless: who will remember them anyway?
