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Children may be drawn to greasy fries and burgers, but fatty foods can reduce the speed at which their brains work, according to a new study.

It found that children who ate a diet higher in saturated fats and cholesterol had slower reaction times and a poorer working memory.

Children who ate the fatty diet performed worse when they were given a task-switching game to complete, the researchers said.

A new study has found that children who ate a diet higher in saturated fats and cholesterol had slower reaction times and a poorer working memory. A stock image is pictured

For the study, scientists at the University of Illinois recruited 150 children aged between seven and 10 and gave them a game which involved learning a pattern between a set of shapes and colours.

The game was designed to test cognitive flexibility, which is our ability to shift attention, select information and alter our response strategy to fit the changing demands of a task.

Their performance was then compared with a food diary that the children had completed with the help of their parents, and which was overseen by a dietician.

'Children consuming diets higher in saturated fats exhibited longer reaction time during the task condition requiring greater amounts of cognitive flexibility,' the study says. A stock image of neurons is shown

Writing in the journal Appetite, the researchers said: 'Cognitive flexibility is important because it comprises the ability to switch perspectives in daily life – for example, viewing a problem from the point of view of others or from a different direction, and involves being flexible enough to adjust to changing demands or priorities.

'Following adjustment of confounding variables - age, sex, socioeconomic status, IQ, VO2max (the rate at which the body can use oxygen during exercise) and BMI, children consuming diets higher in saturated fats exhibited longer reaction time during the task condition requiring greater amounts of cognitive flexibility.

'Further, increasing saturated fat intake and dietary cholesterol were correlated with greater switch costs (such as the difference in performance and accuracy between repeating a task and switching a task), reflecting impaired ability to maintain multiple task sets in working memory and poorer efficiency of cognitive control processes involved in task switching.

'These data are among the first to indicate that children consuming diets higher in saturated fats and cholesterol exhibit compromised ability to flexibly modulate their cognitive operations, particularly when faced with greater cognitive challenge.'

Previous studies have found that aerobic fitness and obesity can also affect a child's cognitive flexibility.