Rats fed a sugary diet forgot how to run a maze they had
previously mastered, but the effect was countered by omega-3
fatty acid supplements. Also this week: new hope for Fanconi
anemia. Sugary Diet Impairs Memory Rats in a maze study
performed worse when their diet was supplemented with fructose
water, researchers at the University of California Los Angeles
found. The team trained 24 rats to run a maze over 5 days, and
then randomized them to a diet enriched with or without
docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and with or without a fructose
solution. After 6 weeks on one of four diets, the rats ran the
maze again from memory, the researchers reported in The Journal
of Physiology. Rats with a DHA-enriched diet that were not given
fructose water had significantly better times on the maze than
did rats given sugar, whether or not their diet was enriched
with the omega-3 fatty acid. However, rats given sugar water and
the fatty acid managed to perform better than ones without DHA.
Rats given neither fructose nor fatty aci