Mice fed junk food for nine months showed signs of developing Alzheimer's disease.
The findings, which come from a series of published papers by a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, show that a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol could increase the risk of the most common type of dementia.
Alzheimer's disease is incurable. It is the most common form of dementia among older people, and affects the regions of the brain involving thought, memory and language.