The latest research: Gaining weight really makes people stupid!

Is being fat a disease? Yes, and it is the “root of all diseases”!

Obesity has been defined by the World Health Organization as the world's largest chronic disease. It is a systemic disease that can cause a variety of diseases and complications, and lay the hidden dangers for a variety of cancers. Studies have found that obese people with a body mass index (BMI = weight ÷ height²) of more than 35 have an average life expectancy of 8 years less than people with normal weight.

01

Study finds obesity can damage your brain!

Recently, a paper was published in The Lancet Western Pacific Health, a subsidiary of The Lancet, a top global medical journal, revealing another major danger of obesity - it can damage the brain! [1]

The study was conducted on nearly 10,000 Asians, and the results showed that there is a causal relationship between increased visceral fat and BMI and a decline in brain cognitive ability - specifically, for every 0.27 kg increase in visceral fat, cognitive age will decline by 0.7 years.

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The study also pointed out that the high incidence of dementia in the world is shifting from the Western Hemisphere to the Asia-Pacific region. About 4 million Asians suffer from dementia each year, accounting for about 40% of new cases worldwide. At the same time, the obesity prevalence in the Asia-Pacific region is 7% higher than the global average. From this, we can speculate that there is a correlation between the prevalence of obesity and the increase in dementia.

A study published in the international academic journal eLife found that after 18 months of lifestyle intervention in obese people, for every 1% decrease in their weight, their brain aging rate was reduced by 8.9 months! [2]

02

The higher the visceral fat, the less healthy you are.

When we talk about obesity, the image of a fat-shouldered person comes to mind. Indeed, clinical experience shows that more than 90% of people with big bellies have excessive visceral fat. However, some people are not fat, but are told that they have excessive visceral fat after a physical examination.

How to judge whether your visceral fat is excessive? There is a simple method. Because visceral fat is mainly concentrated in the waist and abdomen, generally speaking, the larger the waist circumference, the more visceral fat. If the waist circumference of men is ≥ 90 cm and the waist circumference of women is ≥ 80 cm, there is a possibility that the visceral fat is excessive.

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Human body fat is divided into two types: subcutaneous fat and visceral fat.

Taking the waist and abdomen as an example, subcutaneous fat is the "swimming ring" accumulated in your waist and abdomen. It is a fat layer that can be easily pinched with the thumb and index finger. Visceral fat cannot be pinched with your fingers and cannot be seen with the naked eye. This is because it grows inside the abdominal cavity, surrounding the liver, pancreas, kidneys and other organs.

A certain amount of visceral fat is actually necessary for the human body, because it can support, stabilize and protect the internal organs. However, as the body's obesity increases, visceral fat continues to accumulate, and excess visceral fat will enter the blood, causing a series of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome such as high blood lipids, high blood pressure, diabetes, arteriosclerosis, heart disease, etc.

And now, scientists have found evidence that high visceral fat can harm brain cognition!

03

Want to lose visceral fat

Change your lifestyle

People with high visceral fat have three main characteristics in their lifestyle:

People who tend to have a greasy diet, like to eat high-calorie foods such as fried, roasted, deep-fried desserts, highly processed foods, and love to drink alcohol;

People who don’t like exercise and often sit for a long time;

People who are overly stressed and sleep deprived.

To put it bluntly, if you want to lose visceral fat, you have to start by adjusting your lifestyle.

1. First, adjust your diet

Eat less high-calorie foods such as fried, roasted, deep-fried foods, desserts, etc., eat less processed foods (candy, biscuits, puffed foods, convenience foods, pickled foods, carbonated drinks), and control calorie intake.

Eat more high-fiber, low-calorie foods (tomatoes, broccoli, celery, lettuce, bitter melon, oranges, grapefruit, passion fruit, kiwi, etc.) to increase satiety and promote intestinal motility.

Eat less refined grains such as refined rice and flour, and eat about 200g of coarse grains every day.
Eat more high-quality protein to help build muscle and increase satiety.

Drink less alcohol, or better yet, don't drink at all.

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2. Also, exercise

Refuse to sit for a long time. For every hour you sit, stand up and walk around for 5 minutes.

Exercise for 1 hour every day. You can walk slowly or briskly at the beginning. After 1 to 2 months, you can choose jogging, skipping rope, aerobics or ball games that are more effective in burning fat.

3. Also release stress and adjust sleep

You can do yoga, deep breathing, etc. to relieve stress.

Spending more time with close people can also calm your mind and relieve stress.

Before going to bed, look at your phone less, reduce stimulation, don’t drink tea or coffee, and don’t smoke.

Try meditating or listening to soothing music before bed to help you fall asleep.

In fact, whether you are obese or have excessive visceral fat, developing a good lifestyle is responsible for your body. Why not do this?

References:

[1] Mina T, Yew YW, Ng HK, Sadhu N, Wansaicheong G, Dalan R, Low DYW, Lam BCC, Riboli E, Lee ES, Ngeow J, Elliott P, Griva K, Loh M, Lee J, Chambers J. Adiposity impacts cognitive function in Asian populations: an epidemiological and Mendelian Randomization study. Lancet Reg Health West Pac. 2023 Feb 14;33:100710. doi: 10.1016/j.lanwpc.2023.100710. PMID: 36851942; PMCID: PMC9957736.

[2] Levakov G, Kaplan A, Yaskolka Meir A, Rinott E, Tsaban G, Zelicha H, Blüher M, Ceglarek U, Stumvoll M, Shelef I, Avidan G, Shai I. The effect of weight loss following 18 months of lifestyle intervention on brain age assessed with resting-state functional connectivity. Elife. 2023 Apr 6;12:e83604. doi: 10.7554/eLife.83604. PMID: 37022140; PMCID: PMC10174688.

Author: Zeng Xinyue

Reviewer: Tao Ning, Associate Researcher, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences