Good And Bad Fats Affect Brain Health, Too

"Good" fats like monounsaturated fats and "bad" fats like trans and saturated fats aren't just factors in heart health -- a new study shows they can affect brain health and memory, too.

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital found that women who consumed the most "bad" fats in their study were also the ones who had the worse memory and brain functioning over the four-year study period, compared with women who consumed the fewest "bad" fats.

Meanwhile, women who consumed the most "good" fats scored better on cognitive tests during the study.

Saturated fats are commonly found in animal products, like butter and red meat, while monounsaturated fats are found in olive oil, among other foods.

"When looking at changes in cognitive function, what we found is that the total amount of fat intake did not really matter, but the type of fat did," study researcher Dr. Olivia Okereke, M.D., of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Psychiatry, said in a statement.

The study, published in the journal Annals of Neurology, included data from 6,000 women who were part of the Women's Health Study. These women, who were all age 45 and older, participated in a cognitive functioning test every two years over a four-year period, and also completed food questionnaires at the start of the study.

"Our findings have significant public health implications," Okereke said in the statement. "Substituting in the good fat in place of the bad fat is a fairly simple dietary modification that could help prevent decline in memory."

Last year, a study in the journal Neurology showed that people who have high trans fat levels in their blood also had performed worse on cognitive tests, HuffPost Food reported. They also had decreased total brain volume.

"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."

For more on how fat affects the body -- and how much of it we should be eating -- check out this Health.com piece on good and bad fats.

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Comments

[rubenevans]

05:22 AM on 05/25/2012

Very interesting blog. Alot of blogs I see these days don't really provide anything that I'm interested in, but I'm most definately interested in this one. Just thought that I would post and let you know.
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[rubenevans]

05:20 AM on 05/25/2012

Very good idea. With all the material available on this subject, I am very surprised nobody thought of this wonderfully thought out idea before now.
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[old29er]

12:17 AM on 05/22/2012

Thank God most of the fat in Pork, Beef, Chicken and Duck are monounsaturated! Tried the vegan thing twice in my life for 1 year plus at a time. Triglycerides skyrocketed to dangerous levels. My cholesterol barely improved. Couldn't get enough protein and my health suffered. Cannot get the whole study to read, and without reading the details, I'd never trust the "interpretation". Starchy carbs, grains, and sugar have a major effect on the production of sfa's in the body (Volek et al, 2007) and there is nothing in the article that tells me what the balance of macro nutrients were.

[davebrown9]

09:49 AM on 05/21/2012

If saturated fats are bad, one wonders where the evidence is. http://healthydietsandscience.blogspot.com/

[billtmore]

07:22 AM on 05/21/2012

I am more convinced than ever 30 min of aerobics is the key. My only problem is getting my sorry self out the door to run!!!

[ajjelove]

09:41 AM on 05/21/2012

EXACTLY! I ate completely healthy for 2 months straight (and I'm talking whole grain bread, salads, veggis, low fat yogurts, lean meat/fish...NOTHING. Started running only 1/2-1 mile every a.m. for 2 weeks and lost 8 pounds!!!!!!!!!!!! But nobody wants to run anymore; every one's looking for the "easiest/quickest/laziest" way.

[ajjelove]

09:42 AM on 05/21/2012

Not to mention how GOOD you feel afterwards; not only physically, but mentally!

[MyrtleJune]

05:55 AM on 05/21/2012

It is really time to get off the good v bad fats and LOOK AT WHAT ELSE THEY"RE PUTTING IN OUR FOODS THESE DAYS!!!!!

[Ian Welch]

09:38 PM on 05/20/2012

My plaque is reversing less than a year after my quadruple bypass surgery. 

I have outlined some of the pitfalls of filling our guts with guts; how the sun will shine brighter and the water will taste better if we eat lots of plants.  I have not shared results.

I am due for my next checkup at the Cardiologist in the next month.  This is from my last visit in November. My results here:

http://wholefed.org/2012/05/03/reversing-plaque-maybe-its-the-aluminium-foil-hat-i-made/

Anyone can pick apart how long humans have been eating meat or how or brains would be the size of peas without animal protein.  There are thousands of studies and experts that will refute any effort that promotes focusing your diet on grains, vegetables & fruits.

I take 10mg of Crestor a day.  Maybe that is the cause of the Plaque reversal?  Maybe it is the baby aspirin?  Maybe it is the 30 mile run I ran on Sunday?  Maybe its the aluminium foil hat I made myself to avoid cosmic radiation…

I say: try it.  Try eating nothing but Plants & Grains for a week.  Two weeks.  One month.  Don’t tell anyone, do it for yourself.

There is no downside… only upside.

Ian Welch
www.wholefed.org

[adam aple]

06:31 AM on 05/21/2012

Ian, please..
We understand your exhilaration with your newfound diet and
desire to preach, albeit it is boring to all the rest of the world.
Only will you avoid doing any vegan , vegetarian or paleo propaganda based on
your short personal experience.
Been trough, seen it all..
I was vegan for 5 years and that is a bad thing i did to my self.
unless you don't have weekly and complete checks on your body chemistry
you are sure to develop deficiancies.. which i did, which my friends did.
Oh, sure there is a glory in the beginning, but watch out after years.
And hell, the nutritional boredom is mind blowing.
All the ridiculous vegan dinners with strange taste and false exclamations.
Eat the food buddy, you are an omnivorne for reasons..

[Ian Welch]

11:51 AM on 05/21/2012

Any "deficiancies" you experienced as a vegan were likely due to a lack of understanding of the basic principles of nutrition.  There exist zero nutrients that can be provided by animal protein that plants cannot.   Also, please do not represent "We understand ...", you have zero insight as to how many individuals I have personally assisted in improving their "fights" with chronic disease.  How many people have you helped in your life? As far as "nutritional boredom"... I do not find the experience to be boring at all, in fact I thrive in the knowledge that my body is now healing itself.   Ian Welchwww.wholefed.org  

[Deadliftmcgee]

01:12 PM on 05/21/2012

I did eat like that, only grains and veggies for a month. I felt awful. I got weak. I added eggs and that helped, but denying what my body did me no favors. 3 months of the vegan/ovolacto veg diet was enough. Went back to grass fed beef and other free range livestock, and immediately rebounded.

Don't say there is no downside, there are numerous downsides:
1) Although you don't find it boring, millions will. Any food plan has to be enjoyable and personally sustainable.

2) Some people will get weak and experience deficiencies eating the way you suggest. I supplemented and still fell short.

3) Some people have physical and aesthetic goals that a vegan diet will not promote. I enjoy strength and a good amount of muscle mass...most vegans I see look emaciated or paunchy. And the few vegan athletes out there? They developed their physiques as omnivores, and put a great deal of effort maintaining them on vegan diets.

If it works for you, though, great.

[I-US]

03:12 PM on 05/20/2012

Wow. The comments are amazing here. The study findings once again reveal saturated fat to be unhealthy for us as study after study after study has shown. Certainly, a grand conspiracy is afoot to bring down the butter industry.

[Fromageball]

11:07 AM on 05/20/2012

There was also some study about eating butter that showed that people who ate 3tbsp butter per day did better on memory tests. I don't have time to search for it now but it came out within the last year.

Taking butter as an example, there is a difference between good quality pastured, grass-fed butter and most of the sticks you find in the supermarket.

[Alvarask]

08:00 AM on 05/20/2012

This study is codswallop and really not worth reporting. Did they control for all elements in the diets of the people they studied? Clearly not, as that would have turned it into a monumental exercise and such observational exercises absolutely NEVER turn out to be properly controlled or randomised. Never. The research has ALWAYS and is STILL showing that the number one healthy forms of fat are saturated fats from quality sources, primarily animal fats and coconut oil Monounsaturated fats are fine in small amounts. Polyunsaturated fats are highly damaging to our cells, are inflammatory and show tremendous associations with cancer and CVD. And we can all agree that trans fats are plain old bad.

[thelmarhynes]

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[melvinjames54]

01:29 AM on 05/20/2012

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[tomcatde]

05:39 PM on 05/19/2012

Need to update the information in this article. Saturated fats are not "bad" any more. They are at worst neutral, some are very beneficial (see, for example, coconut oil and lauric acid).

And polyunsatured fats are not necessarily healthy...especially seed and vegetable oils. These are an inflammatory and should be avoided.

And of course trans-fats must be avoided at all costs.

[WishfulThinkingRulesAll]

02:20 PM on 05/19/2012

Is all saturated fat the same? I have seen articles which claim it is not.

[spitfiredd]

02:55 PM on 05/19/2012

The thing about studies like these is that they are not controlled or randomized so in reality the Drs can just make up whatever statistics that suit's their theory. When you do these sort of questionnaires you run in to so many problems since there are so many other factors that might be the real cause. The fact of the matter is we are basing so much of little knowledge and we should probably wait until we have a better understanding of the human body and nutritional sciences until we start giving advice.