The answer, unfortunately, is yes. At least that is the finding of a new animal study from British researchers. After eating a high-fat diet for just 10 days, rats showed short-term memory loss and less energy to exercise “” in other words, they became more stupid and lazy.
The researchers compared the performance of the rats on a high-fat diet (55 percent of calories as fat) with rats on a low-fat diet (7.5 percent of calories as fat). In the rats with the high-fat diet, their muscles worked less efficiently, which lowered their energy levels, caused their hearts to work harder during exercise, and caused their hearts to increase in size.
The rats on the high-fat diet took longer to make their way through a maze and made more mistakes than the rats eating a low-fat diet.
The same way that food affects rats in a maze, it also affects us. We need to understand that the foods we eat on a daily basis affect our overall health, our energy levels, and our brain function. To optimize our brains and increase our energy levels, we need to eat brain healthy foods, including lean protein, complex carbohydrates “” such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans “” and healthy fats like olive oil.
Share this Article
Found this article useful or interesting? Share it with others!
The results of this study was published on the Weston A. Price site as well, and a point was made there that “fats,” per se, weren’t the problem. Vegetable oils, such as corn oil, soybean oil, and canola oil, were used in this study, but not meat fats or coconut oil or butter. That there are fats which are essential for brain health was not at all addressed by the study or the conclusion.
Just sayin’.
Thank you Dr for suggesting the Zone diet, what an ephiphany it created for me, Increased mental clarity,energy,control over food etc.
I think Deb is missing the point – the low fat rats were exceptionally healthy, fit, and smarter.
The Weston Price Foundation is a group that started out as a group of cattle ranchers and continues to this day to primarily misinform the public and lobby the government. They are a remarkably poor source of health information, as is anyone being paid by the meat and dairy industries.
This study Dr Amen is talking about is consistent with the findings of The China Study (there is a book with same title on it) and The Blue Zones and the 7th Day Adventist studies and countless others – the less meat and dairy you consume the healthier you will be. These were all studies on real people in real life over many years and they all found that those who live the longest and healthiest lives eat the least meat and dairy, and that even small amounts of meat and dairy consumption are associated with the onset of western degenerative diseases of affluence.
Bren
There are some very good fats in foods like raw nuts and avocadoes.
What kind of fat? Fat is not just fat. Vegetable fats are different from animal fats and among animal fats, there is a big difference between animals fed things that fatten them up (like grains), and animals fed what they were evolved to eat — grass.
It is inappropriate to extrapolate from research like this and make nutritional recommendations. Really, the nutrient breakdown for whatever those rats were eating, and whatever fat most people are eating, and the suitable fats consumed by primal cultures (and those people knowledgeable enough to copy them) are radically different.
There is no valid comparison at all. I am surprised Dr. Amen is touting this, really.
The article and Dr. Amen are discussing a high fat diet only. Of course there are good fats,but due to their density of calories, one would never want to go on a high fat diet. Eat
these in moderation.
My recent experience with an All Natural, Unprocessed, Anthropologically Correct diet has lowered my cholesterol from 287 to 126 and my triglycerides from 280 to 65. My blood pressure has dropped from an average of 135/90 with FOUR medications to 117/70 with just ONE medication.
While I have used olive oil exclusively as an added fat I have also been eating plenty of unprocessed nuts and animal protein — fish, chicken, beef, pork.
It is important to note that I have NOT limited fats on this eating plan but have experienced a radical and positive change in my health. I have lost almost 50lbs. in two years without dieting one single day.
What I have eliminated ENTIRELY form my diet are the following:
SUGAR
ALL GRAINS, including Rice
DAIRY PRODUCTS, all types, zero dairy
OILS, other than olive oil.
It is easy to point the finger at FATS. We should be pointing the finger at PROCESSED FOODS OF ANY TYPE.
To avoid increased butchering of animals, is it necessay to allow many to keep believing such prevalent mis-conclusions as those in this article?
I suppose so…
But what a price!: 99.9% of humans being crippled by diseases & early death, while continuing to live in a culture of delusions, e.g. that some starch is optimal.
What does “anthropologically correct” mean?
I would like to know more about the study as well.
What kinds of fats?
Were the fats raw or cooked?
What was the other 45% of the diet?
(I guess I can’t just let so many wrong conclusions pile up so high in such a crucial aspect for so many people’s health, cogency, & longevity. So, …)
Look, what if the fat-fed rats simply weren’t as hungry, & so explored more &/or hurried less during the mazes & exercises (both of which they were probably incited to do by being fed at the end)?
& what if the fat was the cheaper trans-fat type, which debilitates neurons anyway?
& then, what if the substantial starch still in the high-fat diet suppresses (as it does in humans) the full functioning of many processes (perhaps to save energy during famines, when usually only starchy foods are still available?), including suppressing cells’ proper assimilation of fats from the blood, thus leaving the fat to clog up the arteries (with these clogs thickening by becoming infected by bacteria spreading from the teeth where starch promotes their growth), thereby reducing blood to the brain (as well as other organs), & making the heart pump harder & thus get enlarged?
I’m afraid that the more proof that emerges*,
of the pre-agrarian {no-starch} diet’s amazing {tho actually merely normalizing} benefits
(e.g. curing, stopping, or reducing almost _all_ disease; increasing healing, misc. energies, & intelligence {including memory})
–at least, _after_ the _even_lower_ energy etc. of the first week or two {i.e., until the starch stored in the liver as glycogen is depleted}–
, then,
the more animals, perhaps by far, that will be being intentionally butchered,
in a mass worldwide return to that diet.
_However_, I just can’t stand to see almost everyone in the whole world being crippled thru their life (esp. in maturity) & killed off early, mainly** by starch! And when even major research organizations are jumping to mis-conclusions this drastically, I just have to join those calling out for a return to living in the truth, as well as for a return to normal health & >100yr lifespan for humans, even –deeply regretfully– at the sacrifice of animals.
I sincerely hope we humans will find ways to approximate the meat-based diet*** _without_ killing so many many poor animals; how about growing meat samples artificially in big tanks?
“Meat farms”…
———–
*: E.g., (a) studies proving that the Atkins or South Beach Diet cures diabetes etc. & stops the progression of arteriosclerosis etc.; or, (b) simple facts, such as that the healing steroids are not produced when the insulin level is high.
**: –even more than by trans fats, pesticides, etc.–
***: esp. since animal flesh has several known nutrients essential for real health that are basically unavailable in other foods.
I agree with the first commenter – it is not pats per se, but the type of fat that is the issue. Here’s the information you need to make an informed, non-alarmist decision regarding fats in your diet: http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html
I meant to type “not fats per se”
Do some research on coconut oil, a saturated fat, you will find some interesting, positive information regarding nutrition, weight loss and improved health! “Eat Fat, Lose Fat” by Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon
My comment is directed to Dean Romano, I am fascinated with your comments! What do you eat on a regular basis? I agree with you completely about processed foods being the real culpirt. But, without grains? Do you exisit on, fruits and vegetables? What about the sugars in fruits?
Dean, you don’t really want your cholesterol below 180, your brain and peripheral neurons will eventually lose function, regarding fats, you need a 4 to 1 ratio of omega 6 to omega 3, these make up a healthy brain cell membrane. Long chain fatty acids, transfats and even Omega 9 [high in peanut butter], are problematic if high intake, long chain saturated fats have causation in actual distortion of the cell membrane symmetry, they attempt to “slide in” between shorter Omega 3 and 6 putting geometrical stress on the “uneven” circular cell membrane which then “collects stuff,” this produces stickiness,” circulating clotting proteins [fibrinogen] create a fibrin “covering,” that prevents optimal flow of blood [oxygen and nutrients] into the cell to energy factories [mitochondria] and also prevents efficient waste removal to the outside of the cell. This explains how imbalance of fats can cause depression, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia etc. Eat more of what God made, less what man made and as Dr. Amen says, balance is key. Short chain fatty acids are good, butyric acid [omega 4], high in real butter, good and stable energy source for mitochondria. Get on Carnitine to assure good delivery of the fats you are eating in nuts, salmon etc. Carnitine carries short chain fatty acids to the mitochondria, stable production of energy verses carb induced short bursts, your various Amen described brain regions will not run out of fuel every couple hours, Buy high quality Carnitine, Doc Amen has high quality nutriceuticals, I prescribe them to self, family and my patients. Your brain is too important to be cheated with poor quality nutriceuticals.
Those carbohydrates – we have no need for them.
Consider where it is you (we) have obtained our nutritional information. If it is from the government (e.g., the food pyramid), think whether or not you follow the government’s advice usually. If it is from advertising, think about whether it is wise to believe what ads tell us. If it is from magazine articles, think about the sources for that information.
Above all, keep in mind to look for what stake the provider of information has in you eating what the information would have you eating. It is a shock to realize that what we think we know isn’t even true, and we might have known that if we had done more homework and found out for ourselves instead of just going along without any analysis at all.
There is exciting new research showing MCT (medium chain tryglicerides– a 60% component of pure coconut oil) oil to have positive effects on alzheimers disease, and potential for benefit for other brain-based malfunctions including Down’s, autism, etc.. I have read reports that MCT oil is the base for an alzheimers presciption drug now being researched. I know physicians who take it as a ‘protector nutrient’ for their brain. It is available at any good health food store. stores. I believe it to be benefiting my thinking, but that is just my observation.