Trans Fats Shrink Brains

But healthy diets can help keep you sharp long after your other organs give out.

Trans fats: bad for your heart, bad for your waist, and now bad for your brain. A new neurological study found that people who consumed large amounts of trans fat were more likely to experience brain shrinkage as they aged. Using MRIs and neuropsychological tests, researchers found junk food consumers tended to have worse memory, attention, language and processing speed skills than their peers and were more likely to develop symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s disease. In contrast, people who consumed more omega 3 fatty acids, mostly found in fish, were better at planning, problem solving, and multi-tasking. People who consumed high amounts of vitamins C,E,B and D in their diets were likely to have larger brains. (Just don’t tell their zombie neighbours.) On the whole, researchers said about 17 per cent of variations in thinking and memory scores and 37 per cent of variations in brain volume could be attributed to nutrition.

Image courtesy of lambda_X