AQUIRING A MUFFIN TOP IS A WARNING YOU ARE DAMAGING YOUR HEALTH

Not a new story, the one below as it has been well documented in the past fat carried around the abdomen is unhealthy as fat there is likely to be around the heart. On the whole men are more prone to fat around their abdomen than women and this is because of female hormones. Oestrogen causes fat to be distributed around the hips and thighs and gives women, their curvy shape. This fat placement is designed to sustain pregnancy and breast feeding and indeed women who breast feed regain the figures back easier and quicker than those who don't. Whilst we are on the subject it's not breast feeding that causes breast tissue to droop but pregnancy and not wearing the correctly fitting bras as the "Coopers ligaments" the natural bra, within the breast tissue can become over stretched and once this happens no amount of exercise, breast firming creams will help. Prevention is the best policy here.

When women go through the menopause, the amount of oestrogen is diminished, the fatty tissue and adrenal glands still produce a little but not enough to prevent menopause, however due to the ratio of androgens (male hormones and both sexes produce a little of male and female hormones) becomes higher than female hormones as a result there is a shift in fat distribution. Post menopausal women will notice their waist will become thicker and they will store more weight on their abdomens than their hips. They will also find their bottoms become flatter due to this redistribution as a result they are more prone to heart disease than pre menopause. The effect of oestrogen protects women more from heart disease and this is largely down to the way fat is stored.

Now to compound things a bit further one of the things heavy, binge drinking does, it causes more androgens to be produced in women over time, this will have an effect on the female to male hormone ratio as a result more fat will be distributed in the and around the abdomens in females, obviously it goes without saying this makes them more prone to heart disease as this fat is going to collect around the coronary arteries. Alcohol of any description is high in calories too.

If you have read previous articles I have posted on this blog and you can find them on here by going to the stress section, the effects of stress long term on the body due to high levels of cortisone (stress hormones) causes a change in weight distribution also, with more fat being stored around the abdomen also.

Young women because of their lifestyles where they are drinking more than ever and the effects of today's stresses are now finding they are more prone to heart disease than ever before. Many women who have families now go out to work, nothing wrong with that, but due to time constraints rely on convenience foods and these are often high in salt and fat and MSG, (I have a blog on this here too how MSG stimulates the appetite). With a little planning it is possible to balance a full time job and a family and eat healthily. And with the use of a freezer you can prepare in advance your own convenience store of food when you are in a hurry. Don't overlook the humble slow cooker either, nor are seasonal vegetables expensive, so there is no excuse really. Even for those who say time prevents them from preparing vegetables  frozen vegetables are often higher in vitamin content than fresh as frozen vegetables are picked very fresh and frozen immediately and thus the vitamin content is locked in. How can anybody say they dislike fruit, its naturally sweet, which has the right kind of unrefined sugars, seasonal fruit is not expensive, its high in vitamins and roughage so is filling and what preparation is needed little if any.

Frankly it's just too easy to reach for that biscuit, which really is what I term 'empty calories' in other wards there is no nutritional value in them, likewise cakes and sweets. The trouble is when you get into this cycle of sweet quick fixes, it often results in weight gain. Every time you reach for that sweet, yes it will make you feel better momentarily but you are doing your pancreas no favours in the long run. For every time you eat refined sugars your poor pancreas has to produce insulin to counteract this so you end up with a pattern of blood sugar highs and lows and it is in these lows your body craves sugar and thus another biscuit. In time this can affect the pancreas and can instigate type 2 Diabetes in later life and in this generation we have action found type 2 Diabetes in over weight children.

So next time you reach for that bag of salty, fatty crisps (and too much salt raises the blood pressure, there is a blog on that here somewhere) or biscuit, think of the muffin top and all that fat furring up and blocking your arteries. Tip print the pic below and  tape it to your biscuit tin

'Muffin Tops' or a beer belly double heart disease risk

Having a ‘modest’ beer belly or muffin top can double the risk of dying from heart disease or strokes, say scientists.
A U.S. study of nearly 16,000 patients with coronary heart disease found that a layer of flab around the stomach can be as dangerous as smoking a packet of cigarettes a day or having very high cholesterol.
The findings add to the evidence that heart problems and furred arteries are not just linked to how much fat people have - but also to the location of the fat.

Danger: A study of nearly 16,000 patients coronary heart disease found that a layer of flab around the stomach can be as dangerous as smoking a packet of cigarettes a day or having very high cholesterol

Past studies have shown that ‘apple-shaped’ women with fat around their waists are at greater risk than ‘pear-shaped’ women whose fat is on their hips.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, looked at data from 15,923 patients with coronary heart disease. They found that those with fat around their waists were twice as likely to die from the disease.
Dr Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, said that fat around the waist was more metabolically active.

'It produces more chances in cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar,' he said. 'However, people who have fat mostly in other locations in the body, specifically the legs and buttocks, don't show this increased risk.'
Doctors often assess a patient's risk of coronary artery disease by looking at their body mass index - a measure that takes into account someone's weight and height.
However, the study authors say doctors should advise patients with heart disease with normal BMIs to shed weight if they have a large waist or high waist-to-hip ratio.
The findings are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1382805/Muffin-Tops-beer-belly-double-heart-disease-risk.html#ixzz1LNBYhy3e

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