Weight Gain = Intelligence Loss?
Monday October 16, 2006
An article in the current issue of the medical journal Neurology claims that there is a link between being overweight and having lower cognitive function. The five-year study included over 2000 participants and measured their mental ability with vocabulary tests. According to the scientists, subjects with a body mass index over 30 did not fare as well on the tests as thinner subjects with a body mass index of 20 or less.Proponents of the study suggest that the effect may be due to hormones released in the bodies of overweight people or "hardening of the arteries," which tends to go along with being overweight. Opponents of the study feel that the idea of a connection between weight and intelligence is nonsense. Read about the possible connection between your weight and your IQ, and then leave me a comment telling me what you think of the study.
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Comments
I don’t know why this should be so shocking. After all, if weight gain can cause other organs to have problems and be less responsive, why not your brain? To me this makes logical sense.
By no means do I think this study states thin people are smart and fat people are stupid. I think all they are suggesting is that you are impairing your mental capacity when you are heavier and maximizing your potential when you are thinner.
By the way, I am a fat guy trapped in a thin body. All my family is pretty much obese and I used to weigh 250 at 5′10″. Exercise and tracking calories has helped bring me into a normal weight range.
I think the study is true. When I was a 16 year-old-boy and weighed 140 pounds, I knew everything. Now, I’m a 40 year-old-man, weigh 180 pounds, and have average intelligence at best. But, seriously, I do agree with your other responder and believe this makes sense. What and how much we eat must certainly have a dramatic effect - good or bad - on our brains. They certainly don’t feed themselves, afterall.
I think this study has the cause and effect all wrong. It seems much more likely to me that people with higher mental capabilities are much better equipt to navigate the many food choices we have everyday and will thus be better at weight managment.
Maybe the thinner people, who have a supposedly higher average IQ, have that higher IQ because they are not worried about their weight issues and are therefore, more concentrated on learning. The overweight people, are maybe too busy trying to control their weight or stressing over their weight issues to really take much time with their education.
As we are learning all throughout our lives, not just in our early age, the overweight people may have such a low self esteem that they may not will themselves to work hard and strive to achieve well. Again, they might be too caught up in dieting fads or stressed about their weight issues to really concentrate on their education.
As science is my favourite subject at school, i will have to agree that there may be some scientific explanation, but i still the problem is more sociological and phycological
I don’t think its necessarily that simple.
Obesity can occur for any number of reasons. The poor have a higher risk of obesity. Stress seems to be related to obesity as well. Never mind the myriad health conditions and illnesses that either cause or are caused by obesity.
Any one of these issues can affect the testable intelligence of a person.
Poverty impacts your education. Not only because of a possible school districting issue, but the lowered liklihood of higher education and an impairment in learning from hunger and poor nutrition.
Stress affects memory. Poor health can have so many manifestations that I couldn’t even begin to post them all.
In short, while the scientists running this study may not be trying to imply that “fat”=stupid, that is exactly what public opinion will hear.
Kelly