Calm Down and Step Away From the Burger
If it’s true that we are what we eat, then people who eat a lot of trans fatty acids — common in fast foods — might be a bit touchier than the rest of us.
In a new study of eating habits and behavior, Dr. Beatrice Golomb, a researcher and professor at the University of California, San Diego medical school, lays out evidence that a diet high in trans fats is linked to traits of irritability and aggression.
In her study, Golomb gave 945 Californians who had already enrolled in a drug clinical trial a standard dietary questionnaire that asked what they ate and how often they ate it. Then she administered a battery of questions and behavioral tests designed to measure aggressive behavior, impatience, and irritability.
Golomb speculates that trans fats — created by a chemical process that makes unsaturated oils solid at room temperature — appear to interfere with energy-producing mitochondria in brain cells. At the same time, trans fats promote inflammation and block the beneficial effects of DHA, one of the heart- and brain-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. (For these and other reasons, trans fats are increasingly regulated or even banned around the world).