The study of almost 10,000 people used MRI scans to measure abdominal fat and blood flow through the brain.
Higher body fat is linked to the brain being slower to process information — a critical component of IQ.
The more abdominal or ‘belly fat’ that people have, the lower their scores on tests of cognitive function.
The study of almost 10,000 people used MRI scans to measure abdominal fat and blood flow through their brain.
Professor Sonia Anand, the study’s first author, explained the results:
“Our results suggest that strategies to prevent or reduce having too much body fat may preserve cognitive function.
The effect of increased body fat persisted even after adjusting for its effect on increasing cardiovascular risk factors like diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as vascular brain injury, which should prompt researchers to investigate which other pathways may link excess fat to reduced cognitive function.”
A healthy body weight is key to a healthy brain, said Dr Eric Smith, study co-author:
“Preserving cognitive function is one of the best ways to prevent dementia in old age.
This study suggests that one of the ways that good nutrition and physical activity prevent dementia may be by maintaining healthy weight and body fat percentage.”
Nutrition and cognitive function
Nutrition is often linked to cognitive function by research.
For example, a study on rats found that high-fat foods can reduce intelligence in just 9 days.
Cognitive performance was reduced by 20 percent in just over a week after eating a high-fat diet.
The study on rats fed them a diet equivalent to human junk food.
Another rat study also found that diets high in saturated fats can slow brain function.
In contrast, healthier diets have repeatedly been linked to better cognitive function, higher IQs and a lower risk of dementia.
For example, people fed a healthier diet from an early age have a higher IQ, one study found.
Even eating organic food in childhood is linked to a higher IQ.
Finally, the MIND diet could lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by over 50 percent and improve your brain health.
The study was published in JAMA Network Open (Anand et al., 2022).
