Women with an hourglass figure have brains to go with their curves  , scientists claim. Going in at the waist is said to be a sign of intelligence which leads to brighter children, too. Women such as Nigella Lawson with a big difference between their waist and hip measurements scored singificantly better in tests than those with thinner, straighter frames. Researchers concluded that it was not necessary for a woman to be skinny--what mattered is that her waist should be smaller than her hips. A ratio of 3:5 was found to be ideal. The study, by the Universities of Pittsburgh and Califrnia, involved 16,000 women and girls.  According to the scientists,  _ They claim that the fat around curvy hips and thighs   holds higher levels of -3 fatty acids which are essential for the growth of the brain during pregnancy . The fat which collects around the waist, however, is more likely to contain -6 fatty acids, which are less suited to brain growth. Reporting in the journal Evolution an Human Behaviour,the researchers found that the children of curvy mothers are more likely to do well in cognitive tests than others. They claim that this could help explain why the children of teenage mothers--who might not yet be physically mature enough to have developed real curves--tend to do less well in school. As well as boosting   brainpower, -3 fatty acids found in oily fish are considered to be of huge health benefit. Althoug the study analysed women's bodies only, -3 fatty acids are also stored in men's hips. However, it is not known whether men with wide hips benefit from the same brainpower boost. According to the researchers, teenage mothers tend to have less bright children because     .
they aren't so good at childcare they usually have less fat than mature women they aren't physically strong enough their waist and hip measurements differ less