Dangers Of Belly Fat:
By Chef K.T. Murphy
No one likes to stare down at his or her stomach and find a bulging belly staring back at him or her. Unfortunately, it seems like one day you just wake up and there it is belly fat. While it may have taken you some time to accumulate your belly fat, you may not have noticed it slowly creep onto your body. That slow growth of deep belly fat could be more than unsightly, it could be dangerous.
What Type Of Fat is Dangerous?
The type of dangerous fat that we are talking about is visceral belly fat. This belly fat is found deep within the abdominal cavity. Often visceral fat will encase your organs like your liver and stomach. This hard yellow fat can cause many health complications for you if left untreated.
What Makes Visceral Fat Dangerous?
According to Web MD, visceral fat makes toxins that have the ability to affect the way your body works. One of the chemicals made in visceral fat is called Cytokines. Cytokines increase your risk of heart disease.
Not only that, cytokines also make your body less sensitive to insulin. When your body becomes insulin resistant, you are at risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes. Cytokines are also responsible for inflammation throughout the body. Inflammation has been linked to certain types of cancer in the colon, esophagus, and pancreas.
Visceral Belly Fat Is A Ninja
Because visceral belly fat is hidden deep inside your body, you may not be aware you have it. Many times people who are not seriously overweight can still have an abundance of visceral belly fat. This means that they can experience all of the obesity complications without being technically obese. Since the only way to tell if you have visceral belly fat is to do an MRI chances are that it will go undiagnosed unless you are overweight.
Visceral Fat Is Part Of The Endocrine System
Your visceral fat can impact your hormone levels. Because fat alters normal hormone function, you may have a harder time detecting actual hunger or knowing when you are full. These two feelings are triggered by the hormones ghrelin and leptin.
Release of Free Fatty Acids
Visceral fat can be located near the portal vein. The portal vein carries blood from the intestine to the liver. According to Harvard Health when visceral fat releases free fatty acids that enter the portal vein and travel to the liver where they can then alter your body’s normal production of lipids. This alteration of blood lipids usually results in a rise in LDL cholesterol and a lower HDL cholesterol number.
Can Interfere with Sleep
The Mayo Clinic notes that people with large amounts of visceral fat are at risk of developing sleep apnea. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute define sleep apnea as “a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep.”
These pauses can last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. There are many dangers associated with the development of sleep apnea including increased risk for heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, and an increased chance of work-related or driving accidents.
What Can I Do About My Belly Fat?
Unfortunately, there are not currently any surgical options to get rid of visceral belly fat. Surgeries like liposuction are only useful on subcutaneous fat. The reason for this is that visceral fat sits too deep within the body, and liposuction would put the body at such a high level of stress that it could kill you. Another reason that it cannot be removed through surgical options is that this type of fat wraps itself around your internal organs. When the fat is has encased itself around your liver or heart removing it through a surgical option becomes highly dangerous.
Fortunately, visceral belly fat responds exceptionally well to a well-rounded eating program and daily exercise routine. If you have developed any of the complications from visceral belly fat like heart disease or diabetes, you should probably discuss all exercise and dietary needs with your physician.
They will be able to provide you with safe and effective exercises and eating programs. Medically based diet and exercise programs will be highly tailored to the individual and will not be something you should get off of an internet website that targets mass audiences.
All the best, Good Food makes For Better Decisions.
Chef Murph
