WAIST NOT WANT NOT

Did you know that fat around your stomach can be toxic, and that you can add years to your life by losing inches from your waist?

Along with a fat stomach often goes raised blood sugar.  This also can mean raised blood pressure, and unbalanced blood fats. This is known as ‘Reaven’s’ syndrome, named after Gerald Reaven, who first noticed the risk factors. It is often now called the metabolic syndrome, which can be present in the body for years before type 2 diabetes appears.

As we know, it is vital to control the level of glucose in our blood, and the two hormones, glucagons and insulin both do this job: glucagons to raise blood glucose, and insulin to lower it.  When insulin is released into our system, our liver and muscles along with other tissue are stimulated to absorb more glucose from the blood. Often tissue becomes less sensitive to insulin, and this is insulin resistance. This means the pancreas needs to work harder by releasing more insulin to bring down the glucose levels.

Blood fats levels – or dyslipidaemia – are not just about high cholesterol. It is about unhealthy lipid profile, or fats, and the balance between the fats may be unhealthy, even if your cholesterol is low. Along with the expanding waistline may go raised blood pressure, insulin resistance and dyslipidaemia. Even though these features may be in low amounts, mixed together they may be dangerous. 

According to a Harvard Health Professionals Follow-up Study, men with the biggest waists were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those with smaller waists. In fact, the likelihood was 12 times higher. The bigger your waistline, the more likely you are to have heart disease, cancer or a stroke. In fact, a high waist size was found by the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, to almost double the risk of premature death, even if cholesterol etc was normal.

In order to cut down on your waist size if it is larger than normal – less than 31 ½ inches in women – you need to exercise for 30 minutes a day, and include a good balanced diet. This means foods with a low glycaemic index - GI – unrefined carbohydrates and protein.    

For more information regarding weight loss and diet, visit WeightLossCommunicator