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# High fat diet causes more than obesity
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/high_fat_diet_causes_more_than_obesity_1115160102/
- Published: 2016-11-15T14:02:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T14:41:42.000Z
- Description: An animal study in Molecular Psychiatry suggests a high-fat diet in the young risks not only obesity but later cognitive problems, because fatty foods can cause a deficiency of reelin, a protein important to synapse function, affecting behavioral flexibility and memory.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Food, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

A new animal study suggests that children eating a high fat diet are not only at risk for obesity, but also cognitive dysfunction when they grow older.The problem with a high fat diet, according to the study report, is that fatty foods can cause deficiency of a protein called reelin which is known to be important for synapses in the brain to function properly. Reelin deficiency leads to the lowering of cognitive functions such as behavioral flexibility and memory among other things, according to the study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. (David Liu) *Reference: Labouesse, M.A. et al (2016). Hypervulnerability of the adolescent prefrontal cortex to nutritional stress via reelin deficiency, Molecular Psychiatry. DOI 10.1038/mp.2016.193*