Dr. Winocur has cautioned the public not to make what could be an obvious logical step to compensating for a poor diet with an increased amount of glucose. That is to say, a glass of orange juice is not going to make up for a daily lunch of burgers and fries.

And if you think that being young makes you exempt, think again. The study was actually conducted on very young rats, which were fed the high-fat diet starting at the age of one month for a period of three months, or into the equivalent of early adolescence.

"Developing brains are much more susceptible to any kind of disruption," says Winocur, which is one reason the team chose this age group. "What's remarkable is that these very young animals that were on the diet for only three months saw such devastating effects of cog functions."

There is an alarming increase, adds Greenwood, in the numbers of cases of Type 2 diabetes in younger and younger populations.

"If kids are consuming these kinds of diets," says Greenwood, "then they are at risk."

Greenwood and Winocur have lately been applying a study to look at the effect of dietary neglect and high fat diet on the aging brain.

"I wouldn't be at all surprised," says Winocur, "if an aged brain was even more vulnerable to this effect than a young brain."