Fast Food linked to Alzheimer's

A Swedish study that fed fast food to mice claims that after nine months the mice showed signs of developing abnormal brain tangles associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Sweden's Karolinska Institutet claims that diets rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol might increase the risk of Alzheimer's.

"On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain," Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, who led the study, said in a statement. "We now suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol in combination with genetic factors ... can adversely affect several brain substances, which can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's."

I think it is important for us to remember that there is no single, special ingredient in fast food that you couldn't find elsewhere in your diet of non-fast food. So, if it is the fat, sugar and cholesterol that are somehow 'causing' Alzheimer's in mice, they could have gotten it eating other foods high in fat, sugar and cholesterol, too.

I'm the last one to claim that fast food is your healthiest choice, but the implication that fast food, by itself, causes Alzheimer's disease is a little harsh!