File this one under extremely obscure cocktail party chatter. Lower body fat, a not so pleasant euphemism for curvy hips, correlates highly with the amount of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid. These fatty acids are being increasingly shown to be essential for brain development. And they may play a large role in how children’s brain develop in the early years.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California, Santa Barbara determined to explore if lower body fat results in the birth of children who have more advanced brain development. To test this, they evaluated data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They correlated women’s waist to hip ratio (a marker of lower body fat) with cognitive test scores from the women’s children. Wide hips did in fact show a significant association with children who had higher levels of intelligence. This was interpreted as yet another reason why men have a preference for women with wide hips.

Interestingly, there are a number of studies that have found that waist to hip ratio has a correlation with cognitive functioning notably among older women. This data has typically been interpreted as suggestive of a positive role of estrogen on cognition since estrogen levels are also higher in women who have more lower body fat. And now the suggestion that lower body fat also helps the brain development of children. I will resist the temptation to discuss the IQ of J-Lo’s children but of course can’t help bragging on my mom back in the day.

Lassek WD, Gaulin SJB (2007). Waist-hip ratio and cognitive ability: is gluteofemoral fat a privileged store of neurodevelopmental resources? Evolution and Human Behavior doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.07.005