One meal high in saturated fat impairs our concentration

A study looking at how 51 women performed on a test of their attention after they ate either a meal high in saturated fat or the same meal made with sunflower oil (high in unsaturated fat), found their performance was worse after eating the high-saturated-fat meal than after they ate the meal containing a healthier fat.

This is particularly remarkable when you consider that both meals with high in fat, being designed to resemble fast-food meals that you might get at McDonald’s or Burger King. So this is showing that even this slight improvement can have a noticeable effect.

Additionally, those who had signs of leaky gut performed worse no matter which meal they had eaten.

Reference: 

Madison, A.A. et al. 2020. Afternoon distraction: a high-saturated-fat meal and endotoxemia impact postmeal attention in a randomized crossover trial, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 111 (6), 1150–1158, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa085

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