Is it another Internet hoax or is there a real Oxford University study that links bigger behinds in women to larger brains? Majority of the comments on Firsttoknow.com, where the five-year-old review by Professor Konstantinos Manolopoulos is cited as basis of the research, found the link crap.

Bethany Brown, an assistant professor in France, considers the so-called study “one hell of a joke,” while Sara Miller agrees that it is a bull crap. Others commented that if the explanation that “women with larger than average backsides produce more Omega 3 fats, which mobilizes brain development,” then celebrities with big behinds such as Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azaleas should be geniuses.

In a 2010 article, ABC News, meanwhile, citing the University of Oxford and Churchill Hospital, reports that the body fat in the thigh and buttocks of some women provided extra protection against diabetes, heart ailments and other health conditions linked with obesity. They point out that the protective properties of the lower body fat has been confirmed by various studies that used a wide range of age, body mass index and co-morbidities, and researchers discussed into in a review published in the Journal of Obesity.

ABC also cites Mayo Clinic Director of Endocrine Research Dr Michael Jensen who says women who are going to have some fat are better off having it on their lower body. However, it is a different case when the fat is on the stomach like many men who are apple-shaped. People like the latter often have more problems from obesity that pear-shaped people.

The original review done by Manolopoulos, titled, “Gluetofemoral body fat as a determinant of metabolic health,” found “the proportional of abdominal to gluteofemoral body fat correlates with obesity-associated diseases and mortality.” However, there was no link at all to bigger brains or intelligence, showing how the Internet could twist facts.

Netizens were really right in questioning the link between the large derriere and big brains because the connection was only with avoiding obesity-related ailments. Erik Kemp summed up their sentiments with his comment that “if this were actually true then Kim Kardashian would be the ruler of the world. Not to mention she’d be able to control time with her mind.”

Sylvia Correia adds that whether the study is true or false, it only refers to people with natural big buttocks, not those with cosmetically enhanced butts.

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