By Alex Baran,
Project Weight Loss Staff Writer
August 14, 2009 Researchers suggest that people can get stupid and lazy if they eat high-fat foods. Studies made on mice show that a high-fat diet causes difficulties in exercising and short-term memory loss and this after only 10 days of bad eating.
Published in the FASEB Journal, the study says mice fed with high-fat foods have shown a decline in their cognitive ability and a stark reduction in their physical endurance after nine days. The Oxford University researchers think these findings have also implications for patients with metabolic disorders and athletes looking for the optimal diet in order to have good results in training.
Physical endurance depends on how much oxygen your muscles get and how efficient they release the energy taken from the food you eat. Glucose from carbohydrates is more efficient than fats. The rats were more active when they had a low-fat feed than those days when they were given high-fat feed.
If that was the entire problem, probably it would have been ok, but there’s more – because muscles get less oxygen, the heart gets bigger to provide the necessary amount of oxygen. That happened to mice after nine days of high-fat dieting.
Professor Kieran Clarke, the head of the research team, says athletes' endurance can be improved by optimizing diets appropriately and help the patients with metabolic abnormalities. There will be further studies with human volunteers.
While previous studies focused on long term complications like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, this study focused on short term results and it is not a pretty sight either. It is important to pay attention to your nutrition and follow a proper diet.
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