--- title: Trans Fat: How Trans Fat Hurts Your Memory description: The opposite of brain food, trans fat is linked to higher rates of memory impairment canonical: https://time.com/3593111/trans-fat-memory/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-18T22:25:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:20.220Z article:section: Health og:title: How Trans Fat Eats Away At Your Memory og:description: The opposite of brain food, trans fat is linked to higher rates of memory impairment og:url: https://time.com/3593111/trans-fat-memory/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9b5fc7943cfff2d/6986a3d435ba6f7d0ec03db1/box-of-donuts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4856 og:image:height: 2732 og:image:alt: Box of donuts og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Trans Fat Eats Away At Your Memory twitter:description: The opposite of brain food, trans fat is linked to higher rates of memory impairment twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9b5fc7943cfff2d/6986a3d435ba6f7d0ec03db1/box-of-donuts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Trans Fat Eats Away at Your Memory > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=307cff1d-a529-4d71-9f2e-641ec5a77d5b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Truth About Fat [Watch (HLS stream): The Truth About Fat](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uYGhfNfS.m3u8) (5:15)  _Published 2014-06-12. When you want to lose weight or get healthy, what is the first thing you would normally cut from your diet? If you said fat, you're not alone_  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 18, 2014 10:25 PM UTC  Box of donuts Box of donuts Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 18, 2014 10:25 PM UTC What’s the opposite of brain food? Trans fat, finds a new study [presented](http://my.americanheart.org/professional/Sessions/ScientificSessions/Scientific-Sessions%5FUCM%5F316900%5FSubHomePage.jsp) at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2014\. Eating a lot of the compound that magically rejuvenates junk food that should have expired long ago is linked to higher rates of memory impairment. After analysis of food questionnaires and memory tests from about 1,000 adult men, trans fat intake was linked to worse memory in people under age 45, even after controlling for mind-influencing factors like age, depression and education. Every gram of trans fat eaten per day was linked to 0.76 fewer words recalled. Put another way? Those who ate the most trans fat remembered 11 fewer words. **MORE**: [7 Foods That Wouldn’t Be The Same If Trans Fats Are Banned](http://healthland.time.com/2013/11/07/7-foods-that-wont-be-the-same-if-trans-fats-are-banned/) That relationship eased when researchers adjusted for BMI and blood pressure, and a study like this can’t prove cause and effect. But the study author believes trans fat may be contributing to oxidative stress, a cell-damaging process. Trans fat appears to be a pro-oxidant: the opposite of an antioxidant. And indeed, prior research from the study’s lead author, Beatrice A. Golomb, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of California-San Diego, found that antioxidant-rich chocolate is linked to _better_ word recall. We’re not eating as much trans fat as we used to: a recent study found that between 1980-2009, we cut down on trans fats about 35% thanks to regulations and reformulations. Still, trans fat is the bane of every health nut’s label-reading experience—it travels under sneaky ingredient adjectives like “partially hydrogenated” and [can even creep into foods labeled “0 grams of trans fat.”](http://time.com/3206187/trans-fat-packaged-food/) But as hard as it is to figure out whether or not your snack contains trans fat, what the compound does to your brain is even more cognitively complex. “From a health standpoint, trans fat consumption has been linked to higher body weight, more aggression and heart disease,” Golomb said in a [press release](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub%5Freleases/2014-11/aha-tfc110514.php). “As I tell patients, while trans fats increase the shelf life of foods, they reduce the shelf life of people,” Golomb said. _Read next:_ [_The Surefire Way To Eat Healthier_](http://time.com/3590474/cooking-healthier/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] There's something we all enjoy about staying [00:02] for dinner. You ever thought why? What was on [00:06] your dinner table when you were younger? Chances are [00:08] it had a lot to do with, what your doctor was telling you [00:10] is healthy. Building a strong healthy body is like [00:13] building a strong, beautiful building. If the foundation [00:14] is weak, the [00:18] whole building will be weak. It takes five fingers to [00:21] point the way to healthful eating habits. Well, here we [00:25] go. For years, the government published dietary [00:29] guidelines. Meant to keep Americans healthy. There's [00:32] a great deal to learn. Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell [00:35] you what you are. The body needs certain substances [00:38] to live and grow. And remember, your body [00:42] isn't just like an automobile. For years, the key [00:45] measures of those guidelines were the same, cut fat [00:48] from your diet. The committee's original report urged [00:51] Americans to reduce their risk of heart attack. By [00:54] reducing their intake of cholesterol down to the [00:56] equivalent of about one egg a day. And those [00:59] guidelines had an effect. From 1977 to 2012, per [01:04] capita consumption of eggs fell by 9 %, beef by 37 %, [01:08] whole milk by 72 %. Calories from saturated fat fell, [01:12] while calories from supposedly safe carbohydrates [01:14] increased. As one expert put it, it was a vast nutritional [01:18] experiment. With nearly a million American's a year [01:21] dropping dead from heart disease in the mid 80s, we [01:23] had to try something. Nearly four decades later results [01:26] are in. The experiment was a failure. [01:31] Americans are sicker than they've ever been before. [01:33] The prevalence of diabetes has gone up 157 % from [01:36] 1980 to 2011. Nearly one in ten Americans [01:41] now has the disease. Causing the public health system [01:44] $ 245 billion a year. Heart disease is still the number [01:48] one killer in the country. Americans are as obese as [01:51] ever. So, what went wrong? Good old granola. Great [01:54] for taste but loaded with fat. It doesn't take much of [01:58] imagine a leap to assume that fat would make us fat, [02:02] clog our arteries and raise the risk of heart disease. It [02:05] turns out that saturated fat is a lot more complicated [02:07] than we think. Carbohydrates and fats are nutrients. [02:10] Like man, you need nutrients to live and [02:14] grow. [ MUSIC ] Firstly, there are two kinds of [02:18] cholesterol. LDL which is linked to heart disease and [02:21] HDL which can be protective. Fats that course through [02:25] the blood are known as triglycerides and high levels of [02:28] those are linked to heart disease. Saturated fat raises [02:31] LDL cholesterol but also raises HDL. Moving LDL [02:34] buildup on arterial walls. So raising both, makes [02:38] saturated fat a cardio wash. One key piece of [02:41] information is that LDL seems to come in two forms. [02:45] Large and fluffy, small and dense. Those smaller [02:48] particles are linked to heart disease, while the larger [02:50] ones are mostly benign. Saturated fat increases the [02:54] number of large particles. The opposite happens with [02:57] carbs. I don't get it. Researchers [03:02] have long since discovered the kind of fats found in [03:04] olives and in fish like salmon. Are actually heart [03:07] protective. Now it turns out the fats found in meat and [03:10] dairy, aren't as bad as we feared before. So that [03:13] means by focusing so much on fats. We may actually [03:16] have been making ourselves sicker. So, she brings up [03:18] the subject of reduced- fat cheese. It's a fat- free [03:21] [ UNKNOWN ]. Fat- free, cholesterol free. Low- fat [03:23] granola. Reduced- fat Kettle chips. Reduced- fat [03:24] Chips Ahoy. Lowfat cottage cheese. Non- fat yogurt is [03:28] the perfect example. The thinking for consumers was [03:31] simple. Fat was dangerous. This product had no fat. [03:34] Therefore, it must be healthy. It's non- fat, which [03:37] means less calories. [ MUSIC ] But [03:41] amid the confusion about fat, we end up replacing it in [03:44] our diets with sugars and carbohydrates, which meant [03:47] our calorie intake was actually going up. When [03:51] carbs [03:54] and things like corn and white bread are ingested into [03:56] your body, their converted into sugars. Those sugars [03:59] convert to insulin cuz it's fat cells go into storage [04:03] overdrive, leading to weight gain. Since fewer calories [04:06] are then left to fill the body, you begin to feel hungry it [04:08] means our metabolism begins to slow down in effort to [04:11] save energy, we eat more and we gain more weight, [04:14] never quite feeling full. As this process repeats, our [04:17] cells become more resistant to insulin, which causes us [04:19] to gain more weight, which increases insulin resistance [04:21] in a vicious circle. Cut calories, and people just get [04:26] hungrier. Obesity, diabetes, high triglycerides and low [04:29] HDL cholesterol can all follow. Study after study has [04:33] found it's very difficult to lose weight on a very low- fat [04:35] diet. Possibly because fat and meat can produce a [04:38] sense of satiety, that's hard to achieve with carbs, [04:40] making it easier to simply stop eating. But it isn't just [04:44] the increase in carbs that affects us. These processed, [04:47] low saturated fat alternatives, come loaded with [04:50] sugars, salt, preservatives, and even some unhealthy [04:54] fats. So what's the real alternative? As [04:59] one extra puts it, the cold hard truth about diet is that [05:02] the only way to eat well, is to eat well. You'll be [05:05] happier and you'll be healthier, if you focus on real [05:08] whole foods, whether they have fat or not. Got it. 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