Jon, that is the usual confusion between correlation and causation. It seems that Phil James is already suffering dementia so his prospects, whether fat or thin now, are for early senility in his old age [assuming he makes it].
<In a study that followed more than 10,000 Californians for almost 30 years, researchers found that the fatter people were, the greater their risk for Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia>. The results were published online Friday by the British Medical Journal.
"This adds another major reason for concern about the obesity problem and it now unfolds yet another area where ... we have to say, 'for God's sake, we better get cracking,'" said Philip James, an obesity expert who was not connected with the research and who heads the International Obesity Task Force. >
They correctly identified that fat people in middle age are more likely to be the ones with poor brain function when old.
But they didn't do the obvious thing and investigate the intelligence and general cognitive powers of those fatties and compare them with the skinnies.
If they had done so, they'd find that fat people have a lower average intelligence than normal people. Philip would conclude from that that being fat causes reduced intelligence. But that would be wrong too. Both have a single cause. It's the same cause as the infamous digital divide. The digital divide isn't caused by lack of money, but by lack of brains.
Innumerate people will now think of examples where that is untrue and foolishly conclude that therefore the theory is wrong. They are probably fat, suffer a digital divide, are heading for early senility and wishing that their income was higher [obesity is also correlated with reduced income and again, the cause isn't the obesity, it's the lack of mental propulsion to earn a load of loot - it's easier to eat a load of lard].
Obese people use fewer cyberphones too. Once again, the cause is not the obesity.
So, you fatties 'out there', don't bother losing weight to avoid your dotage. Better to improve your nutrient intake, which will probably involve losing plenty of weight too. It's not so easy to get fat on microwaved cabbage, carrots, onions, beans, parsley, peas, garlic, rice, squid, salmon, soya sauce, flaked yeast, olive oil [cold pressed and unheated] or grapeseed oil, all mixed together with a bit of seasoning such as chile. That's brain food.
Mqurice |
