BIN that hamburger now. Scientists in Canada say that a high-fat diet not only clogs arteries and piles on the pounds, it can also impair memory.
Gordon Winocur and Carol Greenwood of the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto fed one-month-old rats a diet rich in either animal or vegetable fat until they were four months old. Forty per cent of their calories came from fat, but the diet was otherwise nutritionally complete. Control rats got standard lab chow, in which only 10 per cent of the calories come from fat.
From four months of age, the equivalent of late adolescence, the rats were trained to do a "delayed alternation task". They had to learn that every second time a lever was presented to them they would get a food pellet if they pressed it. Some rats quickly learned that pressing every time was pointless. The rodents also had ...
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