
UCLA study shows high-fructose diet sabotages learning, memory  - jamesbritt
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/this-is-your-brain-on-sugar-ucla-233992.aspx
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magicalist
Note that this is a study on a high-fructose diet, not a high-fructose corn
syrup diet. A major source of fructose is sucrose, which when cooked with is
often already broken down into glucose and fructose before consumption.

Note also that this was a study on rats, not humans.

If we cut through the press release (which was already amended to be less
sensationalist), this was actually a study showing that omega-3 fatty acids
improved the rats' memories of a maze after six weeks. That a high-fructose
diet would "sabotage learning, memory" is merely supposition on the part of
the researcher (and he says so, explicitly). There is no evidence from this
study that that is the case. Why they wouldn't have a control group not
receiving the high-fructose diet is not apparent.

~~~
derleth
> this was actually a study showing that omega-3 fatty acids improved the
> rats' memories of a maze after six weeks

So therefore Monsanto is Hitler-level evil and corn subsidies are killing us.
Gotcha.

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cjbprime
.. in rats.

Metabolism results in rats are _notoriously_ bad at generalizing to humans.
You can get rats to live much longer by restricting their calories; live 30%
shorter lives by giving them small doses of caffeine; we can cure obesity,
spinal injuries, get them to regenerate nerves.. and none of it has been shown
to generalize to humans.

Here's a Slate article about problems with mouse research:
[http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_mouse_t...](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_mouse_trap/2011/11/lab_mice_are_they_limiting_our_understanding_of_human_disease_.html)

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ColinWright
See also: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3992599>

