On Being Fat and Stupid: *Is* There A Link?

Yesterday, I exploded my subconscious assumption that wealth and intelligence were strongly connected (they aren’t). Today, the topic is even more painful; just typing the title of this post made me shudder.

But exploring this second subconscious prejudice of mine (A presumed link between being overweight, and being not-so-bright) didn’t lead me at all where I expected.

When I keyed the search terms into Google, I was confident that I’d find there was no real link between weight and intelligence.

I was wrong.

Research suggests that being overweight may be directly linked to a decline in some cognitive functions. With levels of obesity on the rise in many parts of the world, we may actually be sitting around becoming “fat and stupid”. Eep!

Here’s The Info_________________

A French Study published in 2006 found that otherwise healthy middle aged men and women who were overweight showed significantly lowered cognitive function.

When asked to memorize word lists, those at a healthy weight remembered 56.3% of the words, but those who were considered obese only remembered 43.8% of the words.

Even more troubling, five years later, those at normal weights retained the same level of word-list recall, but the recall among those who were obese dropped to 37.5%.

The study took factors like age, sex, education, blood pressure and diabetes into account, and scientists suggested that the results may have been due to hormonal differences in the overweight subjects, or hardening of the arteries in the brain, leading to reduced blood flow. More research is needed, though, to confirm their results and investigate why the link is there.

Other Risks_________________

Though this study took it out of the equation, obesity does increase the risks of developing diabetes and high blood pressure, both of which are widely recognized to be problematic for the brain.

Obesity is also linked to a more sedentary lifestyle, poorer diet choices, depression, and a wealth of other physical and mental ills that may affect the brain’s function.

My Conclusions?_____________

My subconscious association between intelligence and weight remains an unreasonable prejudice; there are certainly plenty of highly intelligent obese people out there, along with lots of skinny and not-so-bright folks.

But there *IS* reason to think that a fat-version of me may be less intelligent than a thin-version of me.

Do I think weight gain is a significant factor in the cognitive issues I’d noticed? I doubt it. It seems more likely stress and emotional turmoil affected both my mental and physical well being, including weight-gain - but long term, the increase in weight could well take a toll on my brain, for a number of reasons.

So later this week, I’ll be adding workout and dietary changes to my brain-goals. Yes, I’m still more motivated by my own intellectual vanity than by the desires to improve general health or appearance.

What about you?

Does this information change how you think about your weight and physical fitness level?