A University of Pittsburgh study found that obese people have 8% less brain tissue than people of normal weight, and merely overweight people have 4% less brain tissue than people of normal weight. Obesity is classified as having a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 30 and above. Someone is overweight if their BMI falls within 25 and 30.

The researchers scanned the brains of 94 elderly people.  Although the test participants were elderly, they were all  cognitively normal. They were not afflicted by brain degenerating diseases such as Alzheimer or Parkinsons. According to Dr. Paul Thompson, a UCLA professor of neurology, just a 4% loss of brain tissue represents“severe” brain degeneration.

So not only can being fat affect your health, we now have evidence that if affects your intelligence.  Of course, we don’t know for sure if the deficiency in brain tissue caused people to be fat, or if the fat caused the loss in brain tissue.

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