The observation behind this piece is that physical health and academic performance track together more closely than people admit. Sleep, diet and exercise affect concentration, memory and mood directly, which is why they show up in results. The argument is uncomfortable but practical: treating fitness as unrelated to study is a mistake, especially in an exam year.

Let's talk about obesity. Now you may be wondering why Usman is talking about obesity.

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I usually discuss education-related matters but bear with me on this.

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When I first stepped foot in the beautiful grounds of Oxford University a decade ago (this week to be exact- wow time flies), I noticed something bizarre.

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I saw no overweight students. None whatsoever.

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Initially, this perplexed me to no end. However, I quickly formed a hypothesis.

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"Smart people aren't overweight."

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There I said it. You may unsubscribe now at this crude statement. Ugh!

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If you are still with me, I promise this isn't a fat-shaming article. This is in fact me trying to help you get to a more enlightened state.

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How do you observe intellectuals at Oxford & Cambridge?

So as I have explained already, I noticed a distinct difference in the physical appearance of my previous schools' students and my peers at Oxford.

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Where I had landed the majority of the students were finely built specimens. And if their bodies weren't well developed then they were still on the skinnier side rather than delving into the overweight territory.

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Furthermore, throughout my time at Oxford I only ever met 1 obese person. Yes, that's correct ONLY ONE. I am not even sure if he attended the university, I just happened to catch a glimpse of him at the library. It is more than possible he was a visiting student.

What are can you name any historical figures who were obese? ... Yeah me neither?

Funnily enough, history seems to back up my observations.

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Did you know the famous Thomas Edison barely ever ate?

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Yes, the guy who is credited with the successful launch of the light bulb into our lives amongst countless other inventions. In fact, all of the "great" men from history were light eaters - Caeser, Napolean, Steve Jobs - all of them. Come to think of it can you name me one great man or woman from history who wasn't a light eater? I certainly can't!

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If we read Edmund Moore's Biography of Thomas Edison, we see in the second paragraph of the entire book the following passage:

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“From earliest youth, he had half-starved himself, faithful to the dictum of the temperance philosopher Luigi Cornaro (1467–1566) that a man should rise from the table hungry.”

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Edison has been quoted “A man can’t think clearly when he’s tanking up”.

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A similar edict is found in Islamic traditions:

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"A human being fills no worse vessel than his stomach"  - [Sunan Ibn Majah 3349]

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Despite all of these observations, the obesity epidemic is on the rise faster than ever across the world.

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🧪  What does Science have to say about this?

A study published in the Journal of Neurology looked at more than 9,600 subjects and found that people with obesity, as defined by body mass index and waist to hip ratio, had smaller brains, and these two factors had additive effects.

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This study is not unique. Many other studies have shown similar ill effects of obesity. You can read the UCL study on obesity here.

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So if there is one question I wish to leave you with, it is this:

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Do you or your child aspire to greatness, and if so, why are you still indulging in that takeaway at Nandos at the expense of the brain?

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What else is worth reading?

What are the honest limits of this piece?

This is an opinion piece rather than research: it argues from experience and from the sources it cites, and reasonable people disagree with it. Where it makes a factual claim, the sources below are the place to check it.

There is a free, government-run service for exactly this:

“We provide careers information, advice and guidance. We can help you make decisions at all stages in your career.” — National Careers Service

Where can you check this at source?

The claims here about work, money and how people rate their lives are measured nationally: