In a recent cross-sectional study, researchers analyzed the impact of obesity on the brain and found that the brains of obese people are 10 times older than their middle-aged peers.

The study, published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging , looked at the brains of 473 people between the ages of 20 and 87 to see if obesity was linked to brain aging. After examining the case on a case-by-case basis, the researchers â??noticed surprising differences in the volume of white matter in the brain of overweight people compared to those of normal weight. "Overweight individuals have seen an expanded reduction in the white matter in the brain compared to other people," the Cambridge University report said.

" Since the brain also ages, over time, it shrinks in size, but it's not known if overweight people have a large reduction in the amount of white matter," said Dr. Lisa Ronan of the Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge University. According to data published by the study, the brain of an overweight person at the age of 50 looks like that of a 60-year-old person with a normal weight. Researchers said that more studies should be done to clarify how obesity affects the brain .