Are you fond of eating trans fats foods like fried chips, burgers, fried meat, cookies, cakes and other such foods. Do you know what effect does it have on your memory, I am sure not. Trans fats are of two types – naturally-occurring and artificial trans fats. Naturally occurring trans fats are produced in the gut of some animals and artificial trans fats are created by adding hydrogen to vegetable oils. This process is called hydrogenation and oil produced like this is hydrogenated oil.
Consuming foods with trans fats in high amount leads to health problems like poor memory and high cholesterol, which can lead to heart attacks, heart diseases and strokes.
Foods containing trans fats and its effect on memory
All the processed foods like chips, French fries, cookies, some ice-creams, biscuits, meat sticks, creamy beverages and so on are known to contain higher levels of trans fats. If you think, you are not taking enough trans fats foods, then you are wrong. Because almost, all kind of foods have hydrogenated oil in it whether it’s in high quantity or low. Hydrogenated oil gives food the desired taste and increases its shelf life.
In a memory test done on 1000 middle aged men, it was found that men who ate more foods with trans fats performed worst in the test. They could not remember the words on cards which were shown to them.
How does food containing trans fats causes poor memory?
It has been found in a research by Golomb and her group of researchers that memory loss is due to trans fats’ effect on cells. Blood flow to the significant parts of the brain reduces due to this effect. This in turn results in higher rate of heart diseases. Trans fats foods are considered as anti-foods that adversely affect proper functioning of cells. All these foods lead to poor memory, and, hopefully you would not want to suffer from dementia or Alzheimer when you grow old. So try and add foods that improve memory and are healthy in your diet.
What to do to avoid eating excess of foods with trans fats
Living in America and not consuming processed foods is next to impossible, Americans lack time to care for themselves and are sometimes left with no other option than to eat packed and processed foods.
In order to lead a healthy lifestyle, you need to avoid taking excess of trans fats foods in your diet. The American Heart Association recommends that adults who reduce their intake of trans fats and limit their consumption of saturated fats to 5 to 6% of total calories, benefits them in lowering cholesterol. Here are some ways to achieve that:
- Cut out on processed foods like chips, French fries and burgers. Emphasize on including vegetables, fruits, whole-grains, fat-free dairy products, poultry products, fish and nuts. These are the foods that even improve memory.
- Avoid eating lot of meat
- Avoid sugary and creamy beverages
- Prepare your food with naturally occurring oils like sunflower oil, olive oil, cannola and safflower oil.
- If there is a need to have processed food, please make sure, it is prepared with hydrogenated oil rather than partially hydrogenated oil.
- Use soft margarine as an alternative for butter. Read the ingredients label and make sure it has zero gm of trans fats.
- The foods that contain maximum hydrogenated oil content are dough nuts, cookies, crackers, muffins, pies and cakes. Avoid eating them or limit the frequency of eating.
Hydrogenated fats or trans fats are found in the food we consume everyday. Foods with trans fats are delicious to taste, but they do not have a very good effect on our body and memory. It is important that you know which foods contain trans fats and which not, in order to save yourself from its adverse effects.
