Posted: October 27th, 2009 - 8:38am
Source: Mail Online

Has it been one of those days when nothing seems to go right? When you feel sluggish, irritable and downright slow? It could be your diet that's to blame.
A few chocolate biscuits with your morning coffee may seem a relatively harmless treat, but scientists have discovered that such day-to-day indulgences could be more damaging than previously thought.
It's well known that high-fat diets are harmful in the long-term - causing obesity, diabetes and heart failure - but now, for the first time, we know they can have a distressing short-term impact, too.
For eating a high-fat diet can reduce physical endurance and your ability to think clearly within just days, according to a new study from Oxford University.
The research, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), found that after nine days, rats put on a high-fat diet were able to run only 50 per cent as far on a treadmill as those that stuck to their usual, low-fat feed.
They were also making mistakes sooner in a maze task, suggesting their cognitive abilities were affected.
Professor Kieran Clarke, head of the research team at Oxford University, described the results as 'startling'. 'It shows that high-fat feeding even over short periods of time can markedly affect mind and body.'
So why would fat have such an instantly negative effect? The Oxford researchers had already discovered that high levels of fatty acids in the blood and poor dietary habits were associated with heart failure, so they decided to investigate whether a high-fat diet - defined as eating a lot of red meat, cheese and sweet foods - for just a few days would cause a change.
The rat study showed that eating fat increased levels of a protein that reduces the efficiency of the heart, so reducing our physical endurance.