IT USED to be that a lean frame indicated a personal history of sickness, meager meals and little money. Now, we are in the era of huge portions of chips, tubs of popcorn, iced Danish pastries and sugary drinks, with deskbound days, and nights in front of the television or surfing the
internet. Excess body fat is now the norm.
Surveys show that the number of obese and overweight persons is increasing.
Your body naturally contains millions of fat cells. Each one is expandable pouch filled with fat droplets, called lipids, that are made of fats, sugars and amino acids derived from the foods you eat. Under normal circumstances, your body used fat tissue to cushion bones, to regulate temperature and as fuel when blood sugar runs low.
When you eat more food than your body needs to function, fat cells expand until they fill to capacity.If there are plenty more calories to be stored, your body manufactures new fat cells.
Not all body fat is equally bad. The body’s most dangerous fat collects in your abdominal cavity, packing around internal organs. This central fat releases hormones that upset body chemistry, significantly raising your risk of heart disease and other major conditions. A growing mountain of research reveals that killer fat is abdominal (or central) fat—the stuff packed around and sometimes in your internal organs.
While hip, thigh and bottom fat are relatively benign, tummy fat increases your odds for high blood pressure, blood clots and high cholesterol. Abdominal fat also starts a chain of biochemical events that leads to insulin resistance—a precursor of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, breast and prostate cancer, and even kidney failure and Alzheimer’s disease.
The reason tummy fat is so dangerous is that, far from being held in reserve until your body needs extra energy, it is continually released into your bloodstream in the form of artery-clogging fatty acids that your liver converts into harmful LDL cholesterol. Abdominal fat also releases other compounds–among them, appetite regulating hormones and immune system chemicals—that open the door for three huge heart risks: atherosclerosis, metabolic syndrome and inflammation.
Even if they’re slim elsewhere, so-called “apples”—men and wom en who carry a large amount of abdominal fat often have almost identical waist and hip measurements. “Pears,” on the other hand, carry weight on their hips and thighs and have a distinct difference between waist and hip measurements, which is a much healthier shape.
If you think you may have a risky waistline, wrap a tape measure snugly around the narrowest part of your naked waist (don’t hold in your tummy). Generally, men with waists over 40 inches (100cm) and women with waists over 35 inches (90cm) are at higher risk.
How can you get rid of this fat? Don’t rest your hopes on surgeons simply being able to remove it in years to come. There have been examples of experimental fat-reduction surgery, removing strips of shiny yellow central fat through tiny incisions in the abdomen. But there is good recent evidence that so-called apronectomies or liposuction do not change the body’s chemistry. There are other much healthier ways to begin trimming this vicious stuff.
You should eat less saturated fat and virtually no trans fats. Diets high in saturated fats—such as butter, fatty meats, ice cream and whole milk make you pile on the central fat, as do trans fats, the fats that give many packaged biscuits and snack foods their crunch. Research is confirming that eating an excessive amount of simple carbohydrates (that is, sugar, white flour, rice, potatoes) contributes to weight gain.
But it is important to ensure that you eat plenty of complex carbohydrates, including fruit and vegetables, for their fibre and antioxidant benefits. You should relax and enjoy life more, because stress and high levels of the stress hormone cortisol are closely linked with central fat storage. And, you will find yourself more physically active and feeling better as a result.
