Fast Food Diet Makes you Less Intelligent

A high-fat diet for ten days has been discovered to damage the short-term memory of rats used in the experiment from scientists at Oxford University .
The research team studied rats who had been fed a low fat diet, comprising 7.5 per cent of calories as fat, comparing them with rats fed a high-fat junk food diet, with 55 per cent of calories as fat.
Just four days later the muscles of the rat on the high-fat diet were not as able to use oxygen to make the energy necessary to exercise, causing an increase in heart size.
After nine days the high-fat rats made more mistakes in the maze, taking a longer period of time to finish it. Whereas, the low-fat rats were running a further 50 per cent by this period.
Researchers found raised levels of a protein called uncoupling protein 3 in the rats’ muscle cells. This protein renders the cells less efficient at utilising oxygen to make the energy needed for running.
Dr Gerald Weissmann, editor of the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology, published the study results; stating that :”It’s nothing short of a high-fat hangover”.
Andrew Murray, co-author of the study, asserted that Western diets are usually high in fat and are related to long-term illnesses like obesity, heart failure and diabetes . Even the short term effects of such diets are often ignored.
The researchers main aim is for their study findings to assist with people thinking seriously about lowering the fat content of their daily dietary intake for the instant benefit of their overall health, wellbeing and level of alertness.
Dr Gerald Weissmann, editor of the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology, who published the study, said: “It’s nothing short of a high-fat hangover.”