Research conducted by scientists from Toulouse University Hospital in France led by Dr. Maxime Cournot, Assistant Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, made a startling discovery that fat may be causing damage to the brain cells leading to considerable reduction in one's cognitive ability. It simply means that excess fat in the body may be affecting or reducing human intelligence.
The research published in the Journal of American Academy of Neurology was conducted on 2223 healthy people between the age of 32 and 62 spanning a period of five years from 1996 to 2001. During this time the subjects were administered cognitive tests to check their IQs. It was found that that the people with a higher Body Mass Index or BMI (a measure of fat in the body), had lower scores in the IQ tests.
Normally a person with a BMI of 25 or less is considered normal, whereas a person with BMI of 30 or more is dubbed clinically obese. In this research, during the vocabulary tests, it was found that the people with BMI of 20 or less were able to recall 56% of words, while people with BMI of 30 or more were able to recall only 44% words.
Also it was seen that the cognitive ability of the people having a higher BMI generally reduced more during the period of five years, as compared to those who had lesser BMI at the point of initiation of study.
Dr. Cournot explained this phenomenon linked to the hormonal secretions instigated by fat cells in the human body. She further added that fat prompts hardening of arteries which may be happening in the brain also leading to reduction in the cognitive ability in fatter people. This phenomenon has been named as Homer Simpson effect after the popular animated character of a lovable regular American.
Dr. Ernest Levister Jr, an expert in the field of obesity deems it necessary to curtail the trends of obesity in US children. According to him 70% of kids who are obese at 10 would grow up to be obese as adults. He points out to a study conducted between 1986 and 1998, wherein 10,820 US children between the ages 4 to 12 were studied. At the beginning only 20% of children were overweight. By the end of study percentage of overweight black children reached to 38% while the percentage of overweight white children reached 26%. This undoubtedly points once again towards alarming trends of increasing obesity levels.
