High Trans Fat Diets Linked To Diminished Memory In Men

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have found that eating a diet high in trans fats could potentially damage the memory of men under the age of 45.

Lead author Dr. Beatrice A. Golomb and her colleagues, who reported their findings at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2014 conference in Chicago on Tuesday, studied approximately 1,000 healthy men and found that those who consumed the most trans fat performed the worst on word-based memory tests.

“People were presented with a series of cards with words on them, and they had to decide if they were repeats, or newly-presented words,” Dr. Golomb, a professor of medicine at UCSD, told WebMD Health News reporter Matt Sloane. “Each additional gram of trans fat consumed per day was associated with .76 fewer words recalled.”

At first glance, that might not seem like a high figure, but the researchers said that highest consumers of trans fat were getting roughly 15 grams per day, which would be associated with 11 or 12 fewer words recalled, or a 10 percent drop in memory. The strength of the association remained, even after factors such as age, education, ethnicity and depression were taken into consideration, they added.

“Trans fats were most strongly linked to worse memory, in young and middle-aged men, during their working and career-building years,” Dr. Golomb said in an American Heart Association blog post. “From a health standpoint, trans fat consumption has been linked to higher body weight, more aggression and heart disease. As I tell patients, while trans fats increase the shelf life of foods, they reduce the shelf life of people.”

She and her associates recruited adults that had not been diagnosed with heart disease – including men who were at least 20 years of age and postmenopausal women – and had them complete a questionnaire about their eating habits. Using that information, they estimated trans fat consumption, then used the word test to assess memory.

The study authors believe that the possible link they discovered between trans fat consumption and loss of recall is due to the impact of trans fat on a person’s cells, which can reduce blood flow to some of the most essential regions of the brain. This effect has also been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and some cancers.

“Trans fats increase the shelf life of the food but reduce the shelf life of the person,” Dr. Golomb told USA Today. “They’re a metabolic poison and that’s not a good thing to be putting into your body. They don’t provide anything the body needs.”

“Foods have different effects on oxidative stress and cell energy,” she added. “In a previous study, we found chocolate, which is rich in antioxidants and positively impacts cell energy, is linked to better word memory in young to middle-aged adults. In this study, we looked at whether trans fats, which are prooxidant and linked adversely to cell energy, might show the opposite effect. And they did.”

The research was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.