by TPO
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"Gut check: It's time to shed that muffing top, that beer belly" (**)
by The YOU Docs:
Michael Rolzen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D
Want to nab a sneaky health thief that's fast becoming Public Enemy No. 1? Grab a tape measure, lock the bathroom door, get naked and take an honest your-eyes-only gander at your middle(without sucking that tummy pooch in). If your waist is more than 35 inches around for women or 40 for men, it's time to get real about the fat you keep pretending is a "no big deal" muffin top or beer belly.
We're talking abdominal fat, aka ab fat. Those breezy summer catalogs clogging your mailbox may offer loads of high-fashion camouflage for a big belly, from XL T-shirts to floaty linen tunics and Miraclesuits. But you're probably aware that "out of sight, out of mind" is a risky way to deal with a spare tire.
We YOU Docs have been warning about ab fat for more than a decade. (To find out more, see our new book, "YOU: Losing Weight.") But the latest data knocked even our tube socks off.
Ab fat is lethal. That spare tire is as deadly as a pack-a-day smoking habit or sky-high blood pressure. Ab fat dumps fatty acids and chemicals into your bloodstream that boost dangerous, body-wide inflammation. If you're among the 28.3 million North Americans with heart disease, even a modest tummy pooch doubles your odds for an early death.
Ab fat infiltrates your liver and squeezes your heart. If you saw Mehmet on that unforgettable episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" a few years back when he dangled thick, swollen sheets of omentum- the curtain of abdominal fat that stretches from your stomach to your pelvis and that should be lacy and thin - you know how ugly this stuff can get. Fat that accumulates in your omentum oozes out to threaten your organs. One in nine adults now has a fatty liver, which is a gilt-edged invitation to diabetes, heart disease and serious liver trouble.
Ab fat is bad for bones, joints, brains, breasts, and prostates. It weakens your skeleton, increases arthritis risk and pain, raises your odds for dementia by 80 percent, increases at least one kind of breast cancer and likely prostate cancer, too. Oh yeah, and it makes migraines more likely.
Ab fat is dangerous even if the rest of you is slim. Up to 45 percent of skinny women and 60 percent of thin men have some. It takes a tape measure, not a bathroom scale, to find this nasty stuff.
GETTING RID OF IT
But if it's there, you don't have to morph into Richard Simmons(or wear sparkly exercise outfits!) to shrink it. Dropping just 3 percent to 5 percent of your body weight (about five to nine pounds if you weigh 180) could shrink ab fat by 20 percent and liver fat by 40 percent! Here's what it takes to do that:
Just make a diet YOU-Turn. Rein in super-sized portions and banish two foods that make ab fat expand: refined grains (anything made with white flour, from pastries to regular pasta) and trans fats(aka partially hydrogenated fats). Either or both are found in many, many baked goods and other processed foods. Trans fats are particularly gruesome. They not only add belly fat but also coax fat from other body zones to pack up and move there.
Switch to whole grains and good fats. Simply eating three servings a day of whole grains (oatmeal, two slices of 100 percent whole-wheat bread) could slash belly fat by 10 percent if you limit refined grains to one serving (aim for none). Then use olive and canola oils instead of butter; munch a few nuts instead of chips; add avocado to sandwiches instead of mayo or cheese. These delicious mono-unsaturated fats encourage your body to move fat away from your belly. Nice trick!
Overindulge in blueberries and green tea. These super-low-cal treats are rich in plant compounds that turn up the body's immune defenses and may help burn more ab fat.
Walk for 30 minutes today. Repeat tomorrow. No need to train for the New York Marathon. Moderate, consistent exercise blasts ab fat. Got kids in your life? Take them with you. More and more children and teens have bulging bellies, and active fun slims their middles.
Always on the go? Pack your own road food. A steady diet of fast food can increase your ab fat by 41 percent in just one month! Invest in a small cooler and load it with fat-fighting goodies. Then, wave good-bye to those over-sized shirts and elastic-waist pants.
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** source: The Saint Paul Pioneer Press (05/28/2011)
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