Do it For Your Heart and Brain

(Image from Harvard.edu)

As if excess abdominal fat didn't have enough harmful effects--e.g., diabetes and heart disease--we may have to add declining brain function to the list:

The scientists found that people with both higher BMI (defined as equal to or greater than 30 kg/m2) and higher waist-to-hip ratio measurements had lower grey matter volume in the brain compared to those who were leaner. This effect remained strong even after researchers accounted for other factors that might affect brain volume, including age, smoking history, education, physical activity and history of mental illness.

Correlation is not causation, so the obvious explanation--obesity causes brain shrinkage--is not necessarily true. It's possible that the reverse obtains, i.e., lower brain function causes obesity, or that some other mechanism is the source of both.

But what does your gut tell you, dear reader?