If being obese and not fitting into your favorite clothing wasn’t already a reason to lose weight, here’s another. French researchers claim to have found a link between obesity and the decline in a person’s cognitive function.

A study was performed on more than 2,200 adults in which the researchers found that people with a Body Mass Index – a measure of body fat – of 20 or less could recall 56 per cent of words in a vocabulary test, while those who were obese, with a BMI of 30 or higher, could remember only 44 per cent.

The fatter subjects also showed a higher rate of cognitive decline when they were retested five years later: their recall dropped to 37.5 per cent, whereas those with a healthy weight retained their level of recall.

Some suggestions of why being fat can actually make you dumb are:

• Hormones secreted from fats could have a damaging effect on cerebral cells, resulting in decreased brain function.
• The thickening and hardening of the blood vessels in the brain.

The Telegraph

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