Belly Fat

Vigorous Exercise Reduces Belly Fat

    Storing fat primarily in your belly increases your chances
of developing diabetes, heart attacks and strokes.  People who
store lots of fat over their belly muscles also store lots of fat in
their livers which prevents the liver from removing insulin rapidly
from the bloodstream.  Your liver is supposed to remove insulin
immediately after it does its job of driving sugar from your
bloodstream after meals into your cells.  If fat in your liver keeps it
from doing this job, the high levels of insulin in your bloodstream
cause your liver to manufacture fat and deposit more fat in your belly
and liver.  High insulin levels also cause your brain to make you
hungry. It's a vicious circle.
    A study from Duke University shows that lack of exercise
causes excess fat to accumulate in your belly, and vigorous
exercise can reduce belly fat in just a few months (Science Daily,
May 29, 2003).  In the five-year STRRIDE (Studies of Targeted
Risk Reduction Interventions through Defined Exercise) trial, 
participants who did not exercise had an 8.6 percent increase in
visceral fat after eight months, while those participants who
exercised the highest amount saw a 8.1 percent decrease in
visceral fat.

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Dear Dr. Mirkin: Is it true that fatty foods are addictive?

    The London Sunday Times (July 13, 2003) inaccurately
reported that "The addictive nature of fatty foods has been
established by researchers at Rockefeller University in New York,
who found that regularly eating the products can quickly reconfigure
the body's hormonal system to want yet more fat. They also found that
early exposure to fatty food could influence children's choices so
that they would always seek a similar diet, increasing the likelihood
of obesity in later life."     
    The next day, Rockefeller University denied that they had
ever reported such a study.  They stated: "No scientist at
Rockefeller University has conducted research establishing the
addictive nature of fatty foods in either humans or lab animals.
The Sunday Times article possibly may be referring - inaccurately -
to Sarah F. Leibowitz's laboratory animal studies on the neurobiology
of nutrient balance and body weight regulation in rats and mice at
Rockefeller. Leibowitz's research focuses solely on the chemical
signals to the brain that arise from diet. According to Leibowitz's
research, the brains of rats fed a high-fat diet have higher than
normal levels of certain brain chemicals called peptides that in
turn stimulate feeding behavior, specifically an increase in the
animals' consumption of fats. A high-fat diet, therefore, influences
the response of brain chemicals in rats. However, Leibowitz has not
shown this result in humans (whom she does not study as part of her
research), and she makes no claims that fatty foods are addictive
in either lab animals or humans."
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