Eating too much sugar can kill your brain, that's according to US scientists who say a steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup destroys lab rats' memories.
Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) fed two groups of rats a solution containing high-fructose corn syrup as drinking water for six weeks.
One group of rats was supplemented with brain-boosting omega-3 fatty acids in the form of flaxseed oil and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), while the other group was not.
Before the sugar drinks began to flow, the rats ran a five-day training session in a complicated maze. After six weeks on the solution, the rats were then placed back in the maze to see how they did.
"The DHA-deprived animals were slower, and their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"Their brain cells had trouble signaling each other, disrupting the rats' ability to think clearly and recall the route they'd learned six weeks earlier."
Without boring you with all the details, the bottom line was, eating too much fructose may interfere with insulin's ability to regulate how cells use and store sugar, which is necessary for processing thoughts and emotions.
"Our study shows that a high-fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body. This is something new."
High-fructose corn syrup is commonly found in soda, condiments, applesauce, baby food and other processed snacks.
Of course, the study did not say what the equivalent might be for a human to consume as much high-fructose corn syrup as the rats did, but this might explain why we had such a difficult time getting through the corn maze last fall...
