Study Links Obesity and Cognitive Fitness — In Both Directions

Obe­si­ty linked to Cog­ni­tion (Health­Canal):

- “Obese peo­ple tend to per­form worse than healthy peo­ple at cog­ni­tive tasks like plan­ning ahead, a lit­er­a­ture review has found, con­clud­ing that psy­cho­log­i­cal tech­niques used to treat anorex­i­cs could help obese peo­ple too.”

- “Accord­ing to a review of 38 stud­ies on cog­ni­tive func­tion and obe­si­ty by researchers from the Uni­ver­si­ty of NSW, obese peo­ple have a ten­den­cy toward “reduced exec­u­tive func­tion”, mean­ing plan­ning, goal-ori­ent­ed behav­iour and decision-making.”

- “Obe­si­ty may both cause and be caused by the reduced exec­u­tive func­tion, said review lead author Dr Eve­lyn Smith, from UNSW’s School of Psychiatry.”

To read arti­cle: click Here.

To access study: Click on A review of the asso­ci­a­tion between obe­si­ty and cog­ni­tive func­tion across the lifes­pan: impli­ca­tions for nov­el approach­es to pre­ven­tion and treat­ment.

To read relat­ed inter­view: click on Dr. Judith Beck on Train­ing Your Brain to Think like a Thin Per­son.