Open AccessEffects of High-Sucrose and High-Saturated Fat Diets on Learning Abilities in Old Sprague-Dawley Rats
Author(s) -
Ji Min Lee,
Tahmarah Otoo,
M Júlia F. de Brito,
Amanda Jaimes,
Arlene Martinez,
Jennifer Trevitt
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
californian journal of health promotion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1545-8725
pISSN - 1545-8717
DOI - 10.32398/cjhp.v19i1.2653
Subject(s) - sucrose , saturated fat , dietary sucrose , cognition , food science , endocrinology , zoology , medicine , chemistry , psychology , biology , neuroscience , cholesterol
With an increase in longevity, many studies have explored the influences of different lifestyle factors on successful aging. This study hypothesizes that older rats fed with a nutritionally balanced standard diet would perform better on learning tasks than rats fed with either a high-sucrose or a high-saturated fat. It also hypothesizes that older rats fed with a high-sucrose diet would perform better than those fed with a high-saturated fat. The learning abilities of the 15-month-old rats (N = 36) were assessed by conducting forward and reverse learning tasks using a T-maze apparatus. The results showed that rats on a nutritionally balanced diet performed significantly better on both learning tasks than those on either the high-sucrose or the high-saturated fat (p’s .05). This finding suggests that, at an older age, both high-sucrose and high-saturated fat diets have a similarly detrimental influence on cognitive health.