Apples and pears – what fruit is your bum?

It’s no longer just a question of “Does my bum look big in this?” but “what fruit is my bum?”

Apparently pear-shaped women, such as Beyonce or Jennifer Lopez, are more at risk of developing dementia than apple-shaped women, such as Catherine Zeta Jones.

Obesity is known to be bad for your health but it’s not just whether or not you have put on weight but where it goes. Pear-shaped women tend to put weight on their hips whereas apple-shaped women develop a spare tyre round their middle.

When tested using a standard memory test for dementia researchers found that the higher your body-mass index (BMI) the lower your test scores and the pears were worse affected than the apples.

Different types of fat have different effects on us in relation to high blood pressure and diabetes and they are deposited in different parts of the body. Fat may also contribute to the brain deposits associated with Alzeimer’s or restrict blood flow in the brain.

The bottom line is that being overweight is bad for us.