There are more and more scientific evidence that suggests that microplastics that are introduced into our body through daily foods and products can have very negative effects on long -term health, since it has been proven that they accumulate in different organs and that their concentrations can be higher in the brain, as a recent study published in Nature Medicine.
Now, a series of four articles published in the May edition of Brain Medicine raises a disturbing hypothesis: microplastics present in ultraprocessed foods could be accumulating in the human brain and contributing to the increase in disorders such as depression, dementia and other world health problems. This collection of studies represents the most complete analysis to date on how these tiny plastic particles could be affecting the brain through multiple interrelated biological mechanisms.
The cover of the magazine graphically illustrates this alarming idea by showing a human brain dotted with colored microplastics next to a plastic spoon. The image summarizes the main finding of researchers: the human brain could contain approximately “a teaspoon” of microplastics. And in the editorial it is explained that the plastic spoon constitutes a visual metaphor that represents the alarming findings that reveal that “approximately the equivalent of a tablespoon of microplastic particles in human brain tissue has been detected.”
High concentrations of microplastics in ultraprocessed foods
This topic is developed thoroughly in the four articles of this special edition, including an academic comment entitled “Elimination of human microplastics: What does evidence tell us?”, Originally published online and that has now been included with three new studies in the magazine in the magazine Brain Medicine.
One of these articles, signed by specialists from Universities in Canada, the United States and Australia, including Dr. Nicholas Fabian Mental disorders.
According to the authors, in high -income countries, the ultraprocess consumption is very high, and in the United States, specifically, more than 50% of energy intake comes from these products. They affirm that observational data have revealed that greater consumption of ultraprocessed foods is related to a negative impact on mental health, “while data of random controlled tests have demonstrated improvements in mental health after the reduction of ultraprocessed food intake.”
“Approximately the equivalent of a tablespoon of microplastic particles in human brain tissue has been detected”
Ultraprocessed foods contain high concentrations of microplastics, mainly due to processing and packaging procedures, and recent studies, such as a review published in The BMJThey have shown that people who consume large amounts of ultraprocessed foods have a 22% higher risk of depression, 48% more anxiety and 41% more sleep problems.
The novelty of this new hypothesis is the suggestion that microplastics – plastic particles of less than 5 millimeters – could be the element that was missing to understand that connection. Worrying data indicate, for example, that chicken nuggets contain up to 30 times more microplastics per gram than the natural chicken breast, which shows the tremendous impact of industrial processing.
The researchers explain in their article that it has been shown that ultraprocessed foods negatively affect the brain through processes such as inflammation, oxidative stress, epigenetic alterations, mitochondrial dysfunction and disorders in neurotransmitter systems, and that microplastics seem to act through similar paths.
Given these findings, the authors suggest creating a specific index called ‘dietary microplastic index (DMI)’ that systematically measure exposure to microplastics through food and thus better evaluate its true impact on mental health.
Source: www.webconsultas.com