Being fat makes you stupid.

Ok, that’s an exaggeration. But researchers at Toulouse University Hospital and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in France recently reported the results of a study that indicates that heavier individuals score lower on cognitive tests, even after allowing for mitigating factors like education, age, gender and more.

People with higher BMIs (Body Mass Index-a ratio of weight to height) scored lower on tests that appraised memory, attention and thought processing. Thinner people (BMI of 20) remembered an average of nine of 16 words in a memory test, compared to those with a BMI of 30, who remembered an average of seven words.

The researchers analyzed 2,223 salaried French workers in 1996 and 2001. The workers were between 32 and 62 years old at the beginning of the study. The study was intended to see if previous studies that found a link between weight and congnition applied to middle aged healthy people.

The study author, Dr. Maxime Cournot, said that the study results need to be confirmed by further research, but they still support the current recommendations that people avoid obesity by eating right and exercising.

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