A high-sugar diet impairs the brain cells responsible for removing toxic debris from the brain, Sabrina Richards writes for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. The research could provide a link between diet and Alzheimer’s disease and similar neurodegenerative disorders, she writes. Richards explains how a diet high in sugar led to insulin resistance in the flies’ housekeeping cells, or glia, and, in turn, impaired the cell’s normal function. The research suggests that the link between obesity and neurodegeneration that has previously been noted in human studies may have more to do with insulin sensitivity than body weight. Image: Basisunus via Wikimedia Commons
