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Besides being bad for the heart, biscuits and cakes are bad for memory, a new study claims.

According to Daily Mail, a study involving 1,000 men aged under-45 showed those who consumed trans-fat performed poorly in a memory test. Trans-fats are added to food improve shelf life and increase flavour but have been implicated in heart problems.

"Trans-fats were most strongly linked to worse memory, in young and middle-aged men, during their working and career-building years. From a health standpoint, trans-fat consumption has been linked to higher body weight, more aggression and heart disease. As I tell patients, while trans-fats increase the shelf life of foods, they reduce the shelf life of people," said Beatrice A Golomb professor of medicine at University of California, San Diego, in American Heart Association blog.

The study required participants to recall words they were exposed to. Through a eating-habits questionnaire, researchers collected data on trans-fat consumption.

The study pointed out that consumption of every additional gram of trans-fat was associated with 0.76 fewer words correctly recalled. The worst performers in the group, those who consumed the highest amount of trans-fat, recalled 11 fewer words. On average, 86 words were correctly recollected in the study.

"Foods have different effects on oxidative stress and cell energy. In a previous study, we found chocolate, which is rich in antioxidants and positively impacts cell energy, is linked to better word memory in young to middle-aged adults. In this study, we looked at whether trans fats, which are prooxidant and linked adversely to cell energy, might show the opposite effect. And they did," Golomb said.

Trans-fats are created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to solidify it. They are found in fast foods, baked goods, snack foods, frozen pizza, coffee creamers and some refrigerated dough, researchers said in the blog. Food regulatory authorities across the world have recognized the ill-effects of trans-fat recommending reduction or elimination of its use.