If you are overweight, here’s some additional incentive to lose the pounds from a recent study in the journal Neurology that suggests there is a connection between obesity and brain power amongst the middle aged.

2223 healthy men and women between the ages of 32 and 62 were studied. Those who were overweight (as judged by a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25) performed worse on cognitive tests that measured learning and memory ability.

Interestingly, these findings held up even when the cognitive test scores were adjusted for high blood pressure and diabetes (both brain busters tend to be more common in those who are obese).

Earlier smartkit posts discuss how:

• children who are obese by age 4 are more likely to have lower IQ scores (25-30 points)
• the appetite control hormone leptin has recently been found to have an important role in learning and memory.

[Click here to jump to the abstract for the above 'obesity and brain power' study in the journal Neurology 2006;67:1208-1214]

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I stopped regularly drinking milk years ago for health reasons, and- based on the sheer volume of milk propaganda going around- have always felt the dairy industry has had an unnatural grip on American dietary habits.

From the site www.milksucks.com:

Dairy products are a health hazard. They contain no fiber or complex carbohydrates and are laden with saturated fat and cholesterol. They are contaminated with cow’s blood and pus and are frequently contaminated with pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Dairy products are linked to allergies, constipation, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.

The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America’s leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow’s milk to children, saying it can cause anemia, allergies, and insulin-dependent diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease, America’s number one cause of death.

And dairy products may actually cause osteoporosis, not prevent it, since their high-protein content leaches calcium from the body. Population studies, backed up by a groundbreaking Harvard study of more than 75,000 nurses, suggest that drinking milk can actually cause osteoporosis

Came across a very recent study showing that the more milk you drink each day, the more likely you are to get Parkinson’s disease- a horrible degenerative disease of the brain that is surprisingly common in the elderly.

Men who consumed more than 16oz of milk a day were 2.3 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s than those who drank no milk at all.

The study, conducted by researchers at Korea University, was published in the journal Neurology.

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Just read an article on WebMD that discusses new research out of the University of Florida.

The study, published in The Journal of Pediatrics, reveals that children who are obese by age 4 are more likely to have lower IQ scores.

Specifically, children that weigh 150% more than their ideal weight had IQ scores that were 25-30 points lower.

While many would tend to think that the morbid obesity caused the brain power deficit; to me it seems just as plausible that a pre-existing disorder of the brain predisposes towards obesity and a lower IQ test score.

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One of the hormones that control appetite is leptin. Released by fat cells, it normally crosses into the brain and tells it to stop eating.

In many obese people, however, leptin is unable to cross into the brain, as it has trouble penetrating the blood-brain barrier.

Now a new study reveals that not only does leptin regulate appetite, but it also has an important role in keeping learning and memory sharp.

The new findings about leptin, published in the journal Peptides, may be part of the reason obese patients may also have problems with their memory.

As you can see from some of my earlier posts, there is a strong correlation between the amount of food consumed and brain power.

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