Ladies, behind you in the mirror. If you have a fat bum there’s a chance you’re going to feed gloriously healthy babies.
Curvy women, here’s a reason to celebrate — it turns out ladies with some extra tush cushion are actually healthier, and better-equipped to feed their newborn offspring, and that’s not anecdotal or from a Kardashian. Science backs it up.
Public health epidemiologist, Will Lassek, studied the effect of fatty deposits on a woman’s rear on the quality of breast milk she produced. The end result? A fat bum makes a happy, healthy baby. It turns out the bum is a sort of “fat bank” that collect vital, fuel-worthy lipids to later give newborn brains a boost when the fat is liquidated and transferred north to mom’s breasts and later expelled as breast milk.
“The fat in these areas is a depot for building a baby’s brain,” explains Lassek, a researcher at Pittsburgh University in Pennsylvania. “You need lots of fat to make a nervous system, and the fats in these areas are also enriched in DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid, which is a particularly important component in the human brain. It looks as if women have evolved to accumulate these fats and hold on to them – until a baby arrives.”
READ MORE: There’s finally a breast feeding emoji!
What a welcome breath of fresh air, and we’re all wondering how that flat butt trend of the 90s ever happened to begin with. Did Americans just not want healthy babies? Sheesh.
via @brycegruber on instagram
It all makes sense though, because “fit” women are typically made up of 21-24% body fat, or about double what a fit man would be. Women literally need their cushy gluteals to provide healthy meals to their babies. Lassek also noted that women who breastfeed typically lose about about a pound of pure, solid fat each month — meaning there needs to be ample reserves to pick from. A mom with a fat bum makes a particularly enriched source of healthy lipids for a newborn.
He adds that millions of years of human evolution have brought the human brain from 400ml to 1,200ml, requiring additional fat usage along the way. Additional research even proved that thicker thighs are even richer in DHA-rich lipids, making women with both fat thighs AND bums virtual baby buffets.
