Rats! High Fat Diet Causes Short Term Memory Loss
A new study last week revealed that high-fat diets caused short term memory loss, laziness, and unattractiveness in rats. High fat diets might make humans lazy, but it can’t possibly make us less intelligent can it? Here is more info from the study. There were two groups of rats that were closely studied. The rats that consumed high amounts of fat after 9 days showed signs of slowness and forgetfulness when trying to navigate a test maze that their leaner & healthier counterparts had no trouble with whatsoever. Additionally, the fat rats were not able to make full use of oxygen to create energy for their muscles. This caused their hearts to swell up and work harder. “It’s nothing short of a high-fat hangover…A long weekend spent eating hotdogs, French fries, and pizza in Orlando might be a great treat for our taste buds, but they might send our muscles and brains out to lunch.” said Dr. Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of journal. Further studies are needed in humans to really determine the true impact high-fat diets have on short term memory.
I can see why the desire to exercise would be decreased from the muscles inability to make good use of oxygen in the body. But to be completely honest some of the smartest people I know are overweight which really makes me question the short term memory loss theory. Overall, I think the study is entertaining but really doesn’t prove anything.
After I read the study immediately thought of the documentary Super Size Me. They should have ran that study on Morgan Spurlock, he would have been a perfect candidate. For those of you not familiar with Super Size Me, the film basically documents Morgan’s experiences as he went 30 days with eating nothing but McDonald’s food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Although I don’t remember him being less intelligent towards the end of the film, I do remember him looking a little wore out. If you haven’t seen this documentary, you can watch it online for free at Hulu.com or watch it right here at the bottom of this post.
source: (Live Science)
Photo credit: mattymatt
Related posts:
Add A Comment