I know you’re all lovely people but that’s not what I meant; I meant how sweet is your tooth? I ask this because a bunch of scientists at the University of California have just published a study that confirms sugar addles your brain.
The study by Fernando Gomez-Pinilla published in the Journal of Physiology confirms that a diet high in fructose slows the brain. Fructose is in many foods at high levels in many cases much higher levels than either fat or salt. If you drink lots of sugary drinks and eat loads of foods high in fructose then you can expect a slowing down in your memory function and in learning new things.
The study confirms the findings of many previous studies but I like the way they conducted this one. They got ratty and a load of his mates to eat corn syrup which is six times sweeter than sugar cane. They gave a load of other rats who could have been mates of ratty’s, but I can’t confirm that, the same corn syrup. But here’s the really clever bit they also gave them Omega 3 fatty acids which can protect the brain.
Guess what, at the end of the six week trial the rats who didn’t have the Omega 3 were slower and took longer to escape from a maze.
Fructose, the reason the human race is getting stupider or not? Discuss.
Further Information on the study can be found at:
http://jp.physoc.org/content/590/10/2485.full?sid=c4648ec4-e4d0-4d3b-8b9a-17eaa907d0b6
Thomas Hughes 