The Effect of Diet on Cognitive Function

Obesity rates have skyrocketed in recent years in America due to diet and increased portion sizes. A diet of saturated fats, trans fats (now made illegal by the FDA), and high levels of sugar result in increased insulin levels and can lead to type II diabetes or obesity. High fat diets can lead to lower levels of insulin in the brain resulting in memory functions to be disabled. In rodents, the hippocampus of six high fat diet mothers and six control chow diet (AIN-93 diet) mothers were studied with different antibodies to measure the difference in protein expression between the different diets. Ultimately, this allowed us to see that the insulin receptors are turned off in the HFD rodents, and they were turned on in the control diet rodents