Remember how successful your Atkins Diet was? Well if you were on it you possibly can't.

The Green Man has a friend who is a fan of the high fat - low carb diet. (Out of courtesy I won't mention your name Phil, oops). The American Society for Neuroscience do not agree with him. They say

new studies show that diets high in fat are a risk factor for not only heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes, but for cognitive decline as well.

Put down that copy of Ulysses Phil and go directly to the Readers Digest. This is perhaps why McDonalds and Burger King also do not count the classics amongst their in-store reading material. Dr Veerendra Kumar Madala Halagappa and Dr Mark Mattson of the National Institute on Aging, who have been researching this very topic, say

These results provide direct evidence that fast food diets, particularly a diet high in saturated fats, can have an adverse effect on learning and memory. These findings show that fast food diets impaired memory acquisition in mice and made their brains more vulnerable to kainate-induced cognitive dysfunction. If such diets have similar effects in humans, then reducing the amount of fat and empty calories may improve one's memory and increase resistance to age- and stress-related cognitive impairment.

hmmm there may be too many big words there for your serious fast-food junkie. To paraphrase - fast food, slow mind. Time to start moving to a diet of lean meat and lots of fresh fruit and vegies.

If you are committed to cognitive impairment then perhaps you should consider alcohol. It has been the drug of choice for cognitive impairment through the ages and one that The Green Man finds excellent for the purpose.

Read more here.