There is growing recognition that insulin resistance, type II diabetes and other features of the metabolic syndrome are associated with brain disorders including Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative dementias. In a study led by Steven Arnold, MD, Director of the Penn Memory Center, researchers found that a high fat diet is bad for the brain (at least in mice), causing brain insulin resistance, lower densities of synapses and impaired memory. The researchers fed mice a very high fat diet for 17 days or a moderate high fat diet for 8 weeks and examined changes in brain insulin signaling responses. You can read the study here.