CURVIER women may have smart children because hip fat contains polyunsaturated fatty acids critical for the development of the fetus’s brain.

Using data from the US National Center for Health Statistics, William Lassek at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania and Steven Gaulin of the University of California, Santa Barbara, found a child’s performance in cognition tests was linked to their mother’s waist-hip ratio, a proxy for how much fat she stores on her hips.

Children whose mothers had wide hips and a low waist-hip ratio scored highest, leading Lassek and Gaulin to suggest that fetuses benefit from a rich …