High-Fat Diet May Make You Stupid and Lazy

[WriteDown]

Source: LiveScience

By now, we've all heard that high-fat diets are bad for our health in the long run. But what about the short-term?

A new study on rats finds that 10 days of eating a high-fat diet caused short-term memory loss and made exercise difficult. While the finding may not seem a big surprise, the researcher say it might suggest that high-fat diets make humans lazy and stupid.

"Western diets are typically high in fat and are associated with long-term complications, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart failure, yet the short-term consequences of such diets have been given relatively little attention," said Andrew Murray, co-author of the study and currently at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. "We hope that the findings of our study will help people to think seriously about reducing the fat content of their daily food intake to the immediate benefit of their general health, well-being, and alertness."

The findings are detailed in the FASEB Journal.

Rodents are thought to be good analogues to humans for studies like this, but research in humans would be needed to confirm that the effects cross over. Also, because rats live much shorter lives, study effects may play out on significantly shorter time scales than in humans.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090812/sc_livescience/highfatdietmaymakeyoustupidandlazy

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Put down the twinkie. :)

[acaijj]

1. Weight Loss

How to reduce our weight. Simple. Eat well and do regular exercise or yoga. Yoga is the best one to reduce and control body weight.

[WriteDown]

3. I like yoga but,,,,

not sure it is "the best."

[Codeine]

10. That's patently absurd

and not backed by anything like real research.

[SpiralHawk]

2. That'd be the 'Republicon Diet Plan against America."

[sui generis]

4. I was lazy and stupid before I ate that hamburger

:P

It's all relative. I usually eat a very lean diet and itty bitty meals, but on days that require standing and presenting for 30 minutes or more on rather complex topics I usually have a hamburger - it makes all my circuits whirrr and click and connect faster; and if I skip the onions I can even do it without farting. M&M's are also good for a quick burst of concentration in a meeting where I've got some complex topics to cover with a group of people.

but if I have standard corporate meals or sugary snacks every day - I do get kinda stupi' in the afternoon. Eating very light meals though tends to make me a bit lizardish; and I prefer to avoid eating or daydreaming about eating my colleagues as often as possible since being distracted by hunger can also give the appearance of stupidity.

[enlightenment]

5. Thanks for that, sui generis -

it is all relative.

And I agree; daydreaming about eating one's colleagues is rather bad form . . .

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. hay. Eyemm not stoopid or layzy. nevrmyne...two mutch werk. n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Well, that certainly explains the development of the Red States.

[stray cat]

8. or you may just be stupid and lazy?

[caseymoz]

9. It's still no excuse for Rush Limbaugh.

:nopity:

[oldironside]

11. Try a little experiment...

Next time you're playing a video game (or playing a musical instrument or doing any task that requires concentration and dexterity)and you stop for a fatty meal, take a note of the difference between your performance before and after. Of course, it could just be me...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. depends on the fats.

South Beach diet is ALL protein and good fats.

I couldn't stay on it, but I lost weight and my cholesterol numbers were faaabulous.

[Abq_Sarah]

13. When people switch from a high carb to low carb diet

It's pretty typical to feel crappy for the first week - two weeks. Your body is changing the way it uses energy. I eliminated sugar several years ago and the first week I was tired, had headaches and felt mentally sluggish. Once I got past that stage, I had a huge spike in energy and my focus and concentration improved over the old diet. My blood pressure dropped and my lipid profile improved dramatically. Some people can handle eating grains and other sugars, I couldn't. Lots of non starchy veggies, protein and good fats probably saved my life.