Fat May Help You Form Memories

[The Straight Story]

Fat May Help You Form Memories
Remembering Rich Meals Important For Early People


Eating fatty foods helps you remember what you were doing when you had the food, researchers from the University of California, Irvine said.

They said in a news release their work could give insights into appetite control that could fight obesity.

Previous work showed that oleic acids from fat turn into something called oleoylethanolamide -- OEA -- in the intestines. OEA helps tell the brain when you are done eating.

Daniele Piomelli and James McGaugh now say that OEA also helps turn short-term memories into long-term ones.

Giving OEA to rodents improved memory retention in two different tests, they said. When cell receptors activated by OEA were blocked, memory retention effects decreased.

"OEA is part of the molecular glue that makes memories stick," Piomelli said. "By helping mammals remember where and when they have eaten a fatty meal, OEA's memory-enhancing activity seems to have been an important evolutionary tool for early humans and other mammals."

http://www.clickorlando.com/health/19310256/detail.html#-

[truedelphi]

1. Fat might help you form memories - right back there on

Your ol backside!

Actually, I am fairly dsure that people on low fat diets do have a harder time with memory.

But they sure look better in their wswimsuits. <sigh>

[CatWoman]

2. well fuck

I should have a photographic memory, then :)

[Turbineguy]

3. I remember

back in the days...

when I was fat.

[Wetzelbill]

4. Wow, it seems I will never forget anything.

[tabatha]

5. It depends upon the type of fat.

There are healthy fats and unhealthy fats.

Some fats - as found in nuts, olive oil - actually help to lose weight.

[napoleon_in_rags]

6. I always knew certain fatty foods were brain foods.

I'm talking eggs, shrimp, fatty fish. Even Mayo. Whenever I've gone vegan I've gotten kind of a light head that slows me down a bit. Some vegans say Flax oil is the solution though, but I've never tried it.

[Monk06]

7. Fat helped me form the memory of when I was skinny.

[dynasaw]

8. So it's great to be

a fat head and a wise ass?

[applegrove]

9. Probably why eating meat caused mankind's brain to expand so fast.

[Mike 03]

10. This is complicated work, and there's much to learn, and it's great to see some people posting

on this topic.

Yes, it's confusing. We know there are good and bad fats, and that there is white and dark fat in the body, and the adipose tissue, and that some fat burns calories and that some fat stores calories, and it's all very confusing at this point, and we need to keep exploring this and figuring it out.

Two things we know about fat:

Our brains need it.
Our skin needs it unless we want to look like crack addicts.