Trans fat may contribute to memory loss, according to a new study presented at the American Heart Association conference in Chicago.
"Trans fats increase the shelf life of the food but reduce the shelf life of the person," Dr. Beatrice Golomb, author of the study and a professor at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine,
said, according to 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."
The study examined about 1,000 men who completed a dietary questionnaire and a memory test in which they were asked to identify new words on a series of 104 cards, according to a news release.
According to a news release, the study found that men under age 45 who ate more trans fats performed “notably worse” on the word memory test and that each additional gram a day of trans fats consumed was associated with an estimated 0.76 fewer words correctly recalled, according to the release. Those who ate the most trans fats remembered 11 fewer words than those who ate less trans fats.
Trans fat consumption also has been linked to higher body weight, more aggression, and heart disease, Golomb said in the release.
On average, Americans reduced their consumption of trans fats by about 35 percent between 1980 and 2009 because of regulations and reformulations.
Twitter users took the study to heart.
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