Trans Fats Linked With Aggression, Study Finds

Feeling crabby? Maybe you should put the onion rings down.

According to a new study in the journal PLoS ONE, there may be a link between eating dietary trans fatty acids -- known as trans fats, and found in foods from French fries to some cake mixes -- and being irritable and aggressive.

"If the association between trans fats and aggressive behavior proves to be causal, this adds further rationale to recommendations to avoid eating trans fats, or including them in foods provided at institutions like schools and prisons," study researcher Dr. Beatrice Golomb, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of California San Diego department of medicine, said in a statement.

That's because "the detrimental effects of trans fats may extend beyond the person who consumes them to affect others," she added.

For the study, Golomb and colleagues examined the dietary information of 945 men and women, and also conducted behavioral assessments on them. The behavioral survey included their life histories of aggression, how they handled conflict, their self-rated impatience and irritability levels, and their score on an "overt aggression" scale.

Researchers found that greater trans fats intake seemed to predict whether a person was more aggressive. The finding held true even after taking into account factors like sex, age and ethnicity.

Aside from this new finding, there are plenty of other reasons to avoid trans fats. The Mayo Clinic explained that trans fat -- which is made when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil, to help foods last longer -- increases "bad" cholesterol levels and lowers "good" cholesterol levels, increasing heart disease risk.

And a past study, published last year in the journal Neurology, showed that people with high blood trans fats levels perform worse on cognitive tests, and they have less total brain volume. That study involved 100 elderly people who live in California and Oregon.

"It's clear that trans fats are bad -- both for your heart and now, we see, for your brain," the researcher of that study, Dr. Gene Bowman of Oregon Health & Science University, told HuffPost Food. "So I would recommend that people stay away from all trans fats. If you aren't sure whether something has them, just look at the ingredients; if there's vegetable shortening, partially hydrogenated anything... just put it down. That's the big message here."

Fortunately, a lot of restaurants and food brands have eliminated trans fats from their products. But the not-so-good news is that the fats are still lurking in many of the foods we eat. Check out this slideshow from our partner Health.com for foods that may still contain trans fats:

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Comments

[juls1314]

09:49 PM on 03/16/2012

Just a few years ago, partially hydrogenated oils were almost everything (non-perishable). For example, I found it in an iced-tea mix once. If you're curious to know why this is so bad - basically, partially hydrogenated oil is Crisco. Imagine - Crisco in your iced-tea!
This is the one item I am a freak about. It is so bad for you. Partially hydrogenated oils attach to your cell walls and let bad fats in while keeping healthy fats out. After time, your organs start to starve of healthy nutrients.
Partially Hydrogenated Oils are synthetic. Your body can't process them. You are better off eating lard, a natural item.
If you do nothing else to get healthy or lose weight - cut out all Partially Hydrogenated Oils. Read labels - it's in stuff you would never imagine.
I wish the US would ban this stuff like the UK did years ago.

[Claudia Roldan]

05:26 PM on 03/15/2012

This is pretty interesting. I wonder how many of these people in the study were overweight??? I would imagine that being overweight can also lead to aggression problems. Just my own personal opinion. Maybe their aggression levels will go down with some of these "Brain-friendly food": Appels, Berries etc

http://www.skinnyscoop.com/list/jessboscarini/burning-calories-by-using-your-brain

[TenaciousMutt]

03:22 PM on 03/14/2012

Funny that HuffPo ran this story next to the article discussing free french fries offered by Burger King on St. Patrick's Day!

[Rebrebreb]

12:38 AM on 03/14/2012

Many ancient cultures believe if you eat an animal (or their "products") that has been thru intense suffering and pain, you take on that suffering. Being as we really are, molecularly speaking, what we eat, I wonder if someday a study will make that connection... that it is not so much "trans fats" - - - but taking into us the matter and mass of animals put thru unspeakable agony from the minute they are born to the minute they are killed. All I can say is I do feel seriously lighter (physically and mentally) since I went vegan in a way that is profound and a just a personal mini-revolution for me. Hope other people choose healthier food, for whatever the reason!

[Jim Van Alstine]

06:51 AM on 03/14/2012

Rebrebreb may be onto something. After all, trans fats (or hydrogenated oils) are a food science creation that takes plant fats and makes them, at a molecular level, much more like animal fats (the original hydrogenated fats). So if synthetic trans fats make us more aggressive and potentially violent, it is reasonable to expect that animal fats perform similarly. I'd like to see the study that compares two groups with similar fat consumption levels (say 20% of calories) but differentiates between one group consuming non-hydrogenated plant fats and the other group consuming animal fats and trans fats.

[sabelmouse]

09:02 AM on 03/14/2012

i believe that too. that's why i get my meat from this small farm shop that a couple of families started and they butcher their own meat too. the butcher believes that stress and pain make the meat taste bad and that's good enough for me.

[Rebrebreb]

11:54 AM on 03/14/2012

In some cultures they sadly kill the animals creating more pain and stress because they believe it causes more "virility" and such (in China this is common with the practice of boiling dogs and cats alive, and in Africa with the Ukeshwama ritual, the bull is tortured before being eaten for that purpose too - and I mean tortured... it is horrific.) Maybe it is not so much "virility" as - more aggression, and that ties is more to the ancient wisdom I quoted above. Also - being as the transfats cited above are mostly in foods with animal products in them (save for the french fries) I don't really understand how this study isolated the "aggressive factor" just to the transfats. All the foods are also nutritionally deficient, so I question whether it is the transfats themselves that cause the crappy mood syndrome or the animal products, or lack of nutrition. I am vegan and we get a lot of flack for having to take B12 (which used to be on our veggies via the soil that is now aggressively washed off.) B12 is responsible very much for the nervous system and affects mood. But how many people who eat animal products have B12 deficiencies (my mom does, for one, and she is not vegan as I am with no B12 defiency. I think the study is incomplete.

[thezenbanjoist]

10:59 PM on 03/13/2012

When the server at the window forgets my fries, that's when I get MAD!

[jsgaetano]

10:58 PM on 03/13/2012

It's kind of interesting, I guess transfats were originally created as a replacement for lard, because of the disgusting state of the lard industry which was exposed by Upton Sinclair's book "The Jungle". As for me, I've been cutting back on anything which isn't natural. So no high fructose corn syrup, no trans fats, etc. Actually been saving up bacon grease, heard it can be used to make really flaky pastries, so I'll be trying that out soon.

[bdgrizcp]

07:32 AM on 03/14/2012

If a 'fat' is solid at room temperature or slightly above, avoid it or severely limit its use. Bacon grease, then, is...? This does not apply to certain emulsified fat substitutes, which use additives to keep the product in suspension.

[jsgaetano]

04:03 PM on 03/14/2012

Sorry, I'm not using transfats no matter what. I don't care if something natural is "kinda not good for me", it's far better for me than the alternatives.

[juls1314]

09:51 PM on 03/16/2012

Lard is actually better for you than tran fat. Lard is natural while trans fat is not. your body can process lard.

[VitoIncognito]

08:43 PM on 03/13/2012

MEAT STICKS. Such a caveman term hahaha.

[mothergrace]

06:11 PM on 03/13/2012

We should have stayed with beef tallow and lard.

[I-US]

06:06 PM on 03/13/2012

Fascinating.