High fat diets make you fat and stupid (1)

Dear Dr Murray,

I have read with great interest your recent publication

Deterioration of physical performance and cognitive function in rats with short-term high-fat feeding

in FASEB.

I have been unable to determine the carbohydrate composition of the diets used from the materials and methods section.

I note that Rat and Mouse No. 1 Maintenance (Special Diet Services, Witham, UK) is composed of wheat, barley, wheat middlings, soyabean meal, dried whey, soya oil and vits/minerals and, as such, is a standard lab rodent maintenance diet.

The composition of the custom diet (diet code 829197; Special Diet Services) is not given in the methods section of your paper. Is it a simple replacement of a proportion of the cereals with a lipid mixture to produce the fat composition detailed, or has the nature of the carbohydrate source used been altered in addition to the reduction in quantity? This seems to be quite an important aspects to the study.

I would very much appreciate a breakdown of the diets.

Thanks in advance.

Beyond that, fascinating paper.

Best wishes

Petro