(Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) In experiments with mice, a Brazilian research group showed that, well before the profile of intestinal bacteria gets altered, a diet rich in saturated fats damages the hypothalamus — region of the brain responsible for optimizing the organism's absorption of nutrients — because its cells react to the excess of fat in the bloodstream as if they were fighting pathogens. According to the research, the ensuing process of inflammation and methabolic disbalance can recede through a diet with low levels of saturated fat and simple carbohydrates.
