Remember the last bad news about glucose? No? Perhaps that's because you continued to drink beverages that are full of the stuff. New research suggests that too much glucose can impair memory. Rats' memory, anyway. The Scientific American reports that researchers at Georgia State University fed 11 adolescent rats
a diet in which fructose supplied 60 percent of the calories. For 10
other rats, the journal reports, cornstar
ch took the place of the sweetener. The scientists
then trained the rats to find a submerged platform in a pool, with the help
of surrounding cues. Sciam reports that two days after the training ended, the researchers removed the pool’s
platform and recorded where the rats—now adults—swam. They noticed that the
control group spent most of its time around the platform’s old
location, butt the fructose-fed rats visited this area significantly less
often. The researchers concluded that while the glucose fed rats could learn the platform's location, they had more trouble than the non-glucose rats when it came to remembering where it was.
Remember to read more in the Scientific American.
