Fat people are stupid

[DGuller]

Wow, very interesting, although the usual "correlation or causation" question can be brought up.

Obese People Have 'Severe Brain Degeneration'

By LiveScience Staff

posted: 25 August 2009 09:59 am ET

A new study finds obese people have 8 percent less brain tissue than normal-weight individuals. Their brains look 16 years older than the brains of lean individuals, researchers said today.

Those classified as overweight have 4 percent less brain tissue and their brains appear to have aged prematurely by 8 years.

The results, based on brain scans of 94 people in their 70s, represent "severe brain degeneration," said Paul Thompson, senior author of the study and a UCLA professor of neurology.

"That's a big loss of tissue and it depletes your cognitive reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer's and other diseases that attack the brain," said Thompson. "But you can greatly reduce your risk for Alzheimer's, if you can eat healthily and keep your weight under control."

The findings are detailed in the online edition of the journal Human Brain Mapping.

Obesity packs many negative health effects, including increased risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and some cancers. It's also been shown to reduce sexual activity.

More than 300 million worldwide are now classified as obese, according to the World Health Organization. Another billion are overweight. The main cause, experts say: bad diet, including an increased reliance on highly processed foods.

Obese people had lost brain tissue in the frontal and temporal lobes, areas of the brain critical for planning and memory, and in the anterior cingulate gyrus (attention and executive functions), hippocampus (long-term memory) and basal ganglia (movement), the researchers said in a statement today. Overweight people showed brain loss in the basal ganglia, the corona radiata, white matter comprised of axons, and the parietal lobe (sensory lobe).

"The brains of obese people looked 16 years older than the brains of those who were lean, and in overweight people looked 8 years older," Thompson said.

Obesity is measured by body mass index (BMI), defined as the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters. A BMI over 25 is defined as overweight, and a BMI of over 30 as obese.

The research was funded by the National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Center for Research Resources, and the American Heart Association.

[Berkut]

I think it rather unlikely that people with less brain tissue tend to eat more or less healthily, but do not find it ahrd to believe at all that being overweight could have such an effect - the more we find out about obesity, the more we find out that it is bad in all kinds of new and exciting ways.

Shouldn't really come as any surprise, I guess. Not like our biology would really be suited to dealing with consistent obesity, seeing as it is a very recent (biologically) problem.

[Cecil]

Indeed. Our bodies are rather good at coping with starvation however as many dieters has found to their annoyance.

[Berkut]

Indeed. Our bodies are rather good at coping with starvation however as many dieters has found to their annoyance.

Indeed. We are very well suited to taking in calories of almost any form and efficiently converting them to fat and storing them away. Which is why people getting overly worked up about the *kind* of calories they consume is a bit silly, within reason. Your body will turn it all into fat just fine if you take in more than you burn, so pigging out on "lowfat" food does you no good.

A calorie is a calorie is a calorie is a calorie, for all practical purposes.

And apparently they turn your brain to mush.

It is kind of scary to imagine how smart I *would* be...

[merithyn]

I'd like to see that study. With only 94 participants, it doesn't seem like a valid scientific study.

[Razgovory]

Indeed. Our bodies are rather good at coping with starvation however as many dieters has found to their annoyance.

Indeed. We are very well suited to taking in calories of almost any form and efficiently converting them to fat and storing them away. Which is why people getting overly worked up about the *kind* of calories they consume is a bit silly, within reason. Your body will turn it all into fat just fine if you take in more than you burn, so pigging out on "lowfat" food does you no good.

A calorie is a calorie is a calorie is a calorie, for all practical purposes.

And apparently they turn your brain to mush.

It is kind of scary to imagine how smart I *would* be...

Two people will the intellectual prowess of Marty. 

[merithyn]

And apparently they turn your brain to mush.

Looking at the areas it's discussing as losing mass, I wonder if it's not more a matter of atrophy. If you don't use it, you lose, and the areas they're talking about are not areas that will commonly be challenged when a person is overweight.

[DontSayBanana]

Could dehydration be a contributing factor? An obese body would presumably require even more fluids than a "normal" body, and I remember a strong hypothesis floating around that Alzheimer's was linked to loss of brain matter through dehydration.

[DGuller]

Could it be a vuscular problem?  The fatty blood vessels in the brain reduce the circulation, and lead to cell death.

[DGuller]

And apparently they turn your brain to mush.

Looking at the areas it's discussing as losing mass, I wonder if it's not more a matter of atrophy. If you don't use it, you lose, and the areas they're talking about are not areas that will commonly be challenged when a person is overweight.

Attention and long-term memory, among other things?

[The Brain]

This is a shocker.

[Malthus]

I'd like to see that study. With only 94 participants, it doesn't seem like a valid scientific study.

They ate the other participants. 

[Jaron]

No Jaron jokes?

[Ed Anger]

No Jaron jokes?

Nah. I like you.

[Jaron]

No Jaron jokes?

Nah. I like you.