Poor adolescent diet may influence brain and behavior in adulthood
The structure and function of the brain continue to change throughout adolescence , at the same time that teenagers gain increasing independence and begin to make their own food choices. Since high-calorie, low-quality diets tend to be more affordable than healthy ones, teenagers may opt for foods that lack key nutrients important for brain health such as omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs), which cannot be produced by the human body and must be obtained from foods such as fish and vegetables. Oliver Manzoni and colleagues fed mice a balanced diet until early adolescence , when some mice were switched to a diet lacking n-3 PUFAs. Mice fed the poor diet during adolescence had reduced levels of n-3 PUFA in the medial prefrontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens in adulthood compared to control mice. The low-quality diet impaired the brain's ability to fine-tune connections between neurons in these regions. for more information visit our product website: Buy H...