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Older adults with type 2 diabetes who eat unhealthy, high-fat meals may experience memory declines immediately afterward, according to new research. But, the study found this can be offset by taking antioxidant vitamins with the meal.

There is already growing evidence linking diabetes to cognitive complications in humans. Adults with type 2 diabetes are especially vulnerable to acute meal-induced memory deficits after eating unhealthy foods.

This latest study, led by Baycrest, an academic health sciences center associated with the University of Toronto,  suggests that taking high doses of antioxidant vitamins C and E with the meal may help minimize those memory slumps.

It is published in the July issue of Nutrition Research.

"Our bottom line is that consuming unhealthy meals for those with diabetes can temporarily further worsen already underlying memory problems associated with the disease,"said lead author Michael Herman Chui, who conducted the research as a University of Toronto pathobiology undergraduate in the Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit (KLARU) at Baycrest.

"We've shown that antioxidant vitamins can minimize oxidative stress from the meal and reduce those immediate memory deficits."

Type 2 diabetes is associated with chronic oxidative stress, a major contributor to cognitive decline and Alzheimer disease. Consuming unhealthy foods can induce this type of stress which is triggered by acute elevations of free radicals – unstable molecules that can damage tissue, including brain tissue. These destructive molecule reactions typically occur over a one-to-three hour period after food ingestion.

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