Fructose Gives Rats Memory and Heart Troubles

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Here's an idea--get a bunch of lab rats hopped up on sugar and see what happens. Someone tried it, and no, rats don't get a sugar rush.

Instead, they get dopey. Rats fed lots of fructose developed problems with spatial memory.

Spatial memory refers to a person's ability to navigate a familiar place, or the way a rat locates food through a maze. How fitting.

For the study, rats were fed a high fructose diet for 19 weeks, after which they were trained in a maze for 3 days, 8 trials per day. Then 48 hours later, the rats' mental retention was tested.

The results, published in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, show rats on a sugary diet took longer figuring out which way to go, displaying "significantly longer latencies" when trying to reach the goal area.

Now here's the freaky part. The memory deficits correlated strongly with rises in triglycerides, a known risk factor of cardiovascular disease. Not fun.

So, if you're lost and having heart problems, perhaps it's time to put the hard candy down!

Via Food Navigator.