Do you know why curvaceous women produce smart kids?

Prof. Know Why answers:

With a legion of male admirers, curvaceous Salma Hayek or Penelope Cruz may brighten up the screen, every time they popup, but a new academic study suggests that their appeal, and that of other curvy and well-endowed women, is based on more than just the purely physical aspect.

Scientific studies have consistently demonstrated that men through the ages have found women with hourglass figures more attractive. According to a study published last year, even the ancient Egyptian men have sought out curvaceous women. Although the reasons for the attraction have never been conclusively proven, many scientists believed that a shapely figure suggested to a man that a woman would be good at bearing children and have a longer life expectancy.

The new research adds that the buxom beauties are also cleverer. The study, published recently, shows that men who admire women with hourglass figures do so because they are more intelligent and therefore produce more intelligent children than waif-like women or those with "apple-shaped" proportions.

The scientists, from the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Pittsburgh, concluded that women with lower waist-to-hip ratios (WHR) produced children with better intellectual abilities.

They found that voluptuous women's hips and thighs contained omega-3 fatty acids, which help nurture both mother and baby's brains during pregnancy. Fat around the waist, however, contains higher levels of omega-6 fatty acids, which does not help brain growth. "Shapely hips and thighs hold essential nutrients that nurse brains and could produce smart kids, too," said one researcher, Steven Gaulin, of the University of California at Santa Barbara. His colleague, William Lassek, from the University of Pittsburgh, said: "Men respond because it's reproductively important."

The researchers tested 16,000 women and girls and found that women with a greater difference between their waist and hip measurements scored significantly higher in the tests, as did their children. The research suggests that children born to teenagers do worse in cognitive tests because their mothers did not have enough of the omega-3 acids stored in their hips.

So, all you men – now you have got another reason to love curves!

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