The Parkinson’s trigger hiding in your pantry

The concern that our daily food choices are quietly paving the way to Parkinson’s disease was just raised by a major new study published in the journal Neurology.

Researchers found that people who consistently eat high amounts of ultra-processed foods are much more likely to show early, non-movement signs of Parkinson’s disease, long before an official diagnosis.

Parkinson’s disease affects movement.

But long before the classic symptoms like tremors or stiffness appear, many people experience what are called “prodromal” symptoms.

These are subtle, non-motor signs that something might be wrong with the nervous system.

They can include things like constipation and trouble sleeping.

These early signs often go unnoticed or are written off as normal aging.

But now scientists believe they could serve as warning lights, and your diet may play a role in flipping the switch.

The team of researchers analyzed decades of dietary and health data from nearly 43,000 people.

These participants were part of two long-running U.S. health studies: the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

None of them had Parkinson’s when the study began.

Researchers collected detailed information about the participants’ eating habits between 1984 and 2006.

They focused on how much ultra-processed food each person ate, using a system called the NOVA classification.

These are foods that are heavily manufactured, and you won’t find growing or walking on farmland.

Then, in 2012 and again between 2014 and 2015, participants were asked about various non-motor symptoms associated with Parkinson’s.

These included constipation, probable REM sleep behavior disorder, depression, body pain, excessive daytime sleepiness, impaired sense of smell, and trouble with color vision.

Their findings should not surprise us:

1. People who ate the most ultra-processed foods (11 or more servings per day) were 2.5 times more likely to have three or more early Parkinson’s signs than those who ate the least (fewer than three servings daily).

2. When symptoms were considered individually, the connection was strongest for sleep problems, constipation, body pain, and depression.

3. When symptoms were considered in combination, the strongest associations were seen in groupings that excluded constipation, suggesting the brain-related symptoms were especially linked.

4. Specific ultra-processed foods showed the strongest links: sugary drinks, packaged snacks, processed meats, sauces and condiments, and sweet desserts.

5. Even when researchers accounted for other factors like age, smoking, exercise, and overall health, the connection between ultra-processed foods and early Parkinson’s signs remained strong.

So, replace heavily processed foods with unprocessed or minimally processed ones to help avoid Parkinson’s.

But if you’ve already been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, then your focus needs to be on stopping the progression and eliminating symptoms. Thousands of readers have done just that using the simple lifestyle changes explained here…