Sad but true: McDonald's makes you dumber

Man, how I can occasionally enjoy such a delicious crispy nugget from McDonald's. While I type this, I immediately feel like opening my UberEats app. I obviously eat those nuggets in combination with a medium French fry and a vanilla milkshake, because that has been my regular order for years. Oh yes, don't forget the sweet and sour sauce. Especially on rough days, McDonald's is the absolute lifesaver for me. Give me a value meal and I feel completely rejuvenated: McDonald's to the rescue.

Okay, okay, McDonald's is of course not really a lifesaver. I don't need to explain to you that fast food is anything but healthy and that we can get really fat from it. Now some people might think: well, then after a visit to McDonald's, you just go exercise a lot, right? But unfortunately, there's much more going on. Fast food not only affects our bodies but also our brains. I'm sorry to have to share this with you, but it even makes us dumber. What a sadness.

Is that really true? Yes, a study from the University of Portland has even shown this. The scientists researched brain aging among the elderly and discovered that our brains can shrink from fast food. Pff, that scares me a bit. I also immediately wonder to what extent my brain has already shrunk. But how can this be?

There is actually quite a logical explanation for this, which I hadn't thought of myself until now. It goes like this: people who often eat fast food naturally consume a lot of saturated fats. Besides the fact that these fats are bad for the blood flow to your brain, they also contain very few vitamins B, C, D, and E. As a result, the brain shrinks, just like it does in Alzheimer's.

Neurologist Gene Bowman, the leader of the research, explains that people who do get a lot of vitamins and Omega-3 fats (and thus avoid McDonald's) have a relatively large brain. In other words: visits to McDonald's make us anything but smarter.

Well, it obviously depends on how much fast food you eat, and there is still little information about that. So let's just assume that a Happy Meal every now and then can't hurt.