Ladies and gentlemen, if you are annoyed by your partner’s forgetfulness, you can blame it on the microwave popcorn, chips and other processed foods that he eats.

High consumption of dietary trans fatty acids (dTFA), commonly used in processed foods to improve taste, texture and durability, is linked to worsened memory function in men 45 years old and younger, according to a new study.

Researchers evaluated data from 1,018 men and women who were asked to complete a dietary survey and memory test involving word recall. On an average, men aged 45 and younger recalled 86 words.

However, for each additional gramme of trans fats consumed daily, performance dropped by 0.76 words.

This means 12 fewer words were recalled by young men with dTFA intake levels matching the highest observed in the study, compared to otherwise similar men consuming no trans fats.

Including women in the analysis did not change the finding.