Women with better bottoms produce smarter babies: study

Researchers seem to have finally cracked the puzzle of why women were fatter - they need curvy thighs, hips and bottoms to make their babies intelligent, Daily Mail reported.

According to the academics, the 'fat banks' played a vital role in fuelling the development of newborns' brains via breast-feeding.

According to professor Will Lassek, a public-health epidemiologist at Pittsburgh University, Pennsylvania, who led the research, the fat in the areas was a depot for building a baby's brain.

He added a lot of fact was needed to make a nervous system and the fats in the areas were also enriched in DHA (docosahaexaenoic acid), which was a particularly important component in the human brain.

He added, it looked as if women had evolved to accumulate the fats and hold on to them until a baby arrived.

It had long been a mystery why women had so much body fat – typically 30 per cent of their total weight.

Professor Lassek added this was similar to the levels seen in bears going into hibernation or whales living in cold Arctic seas.

Women had traded muscle for fat, so they were about a third as strong, he said.

Men's bodies on the other hand were made of just 5 to 10 per cent body fat, and they had a much more linear shape as a result.

Fat cells were also ''mobilized'' during pregnancy so the foetus could absorb the nutrients from them. This was thought to be a contributing factor as to why so much weight comes off while breastfeeding. Prof Lassek said this definitely accounted for fat loss while nursing.

That was why lactating women might lose a pound of fat a month, he said.

A report by News.co.au, cited a new book, titled Curvology: The Origins and Power of Female Body Shape, as saying there was evidence that ''women with larger thighs had higher levels of brain-building breastmilk lipids.''

The author of the book, David Bainbridge, a reproductive biologist at Cambridge University, said there was even evidence that the women  and their children were more intelligent as a result.

This latest research would probably trigger a debate over whether women with fatter bottoms and thighs produced more intelligent children.