Beauty Beat: Sharp Curves

A woman's eye-popping hourglass figure offers drooling men more than just an irresistible image. Shapely hips and thighs hold essential nutrients that nurse brains and could produce smart kids too, say Steven Gaulin of the University of California at Santa Barbara and William Lassek of the University of Pittsburgh.

"Men respond because it's reproductively important," Lassek says. At a meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Lassek and Gaulin revealed that women with low waist-to-hip ratios (WHR) have children with better cognitive abilities than less curvy mothers.

The explanation lies in omega-3 fatty acids, which are tucked in the hips and thighs and also compose much of the human brain. Girls begin storing these fatty acids below the waist once puberty hits. The body hoards the biological building blocks in anticipation of a woman's third trimester of pregnancy, when the fetal brain is in its most rapid stages of development. Lower body weight loss continues until the child stops breast-feeding. (Eating more omega-3s while expecting and nursing can contribute to development, but the body prefers its own reserves.) Meanwhile, waist fat increases brain-harming inflammation and is low in the fatty acids—not to mention its contribution to diabetes and heart disease.

Previous research had suggested the padding provides babies with
a sturdy supply of energy. But, Lassek points out, "if it's just for energy, why not have fat on your back?" Now wouldn't that be sexy.