He said it was not clear if the brain differences predispose certain individuals to becoming fat, or vice versa, but added: "There are previous studies that imply elevated body fat can cause these sorts of brain changes." The research suggests overweight men and women have less grey and white matter in key areas of the brain. In particular, heavier and fatter people had less white matter in the salience network. Fat people are less intelligent than their thinner counterparts, a provocative study has claimed. The overall results showed there was "no significant different" in terms of white matter between people who had a normal weight and people who were fat.

Source: New Zealand Herald July 13, 2016 00:45 UTC