Belly fat—lots of people have it! Where does being
fat and overweight come from? The answer is... lifestyle
and environment.
Over the past few years, national attention has started to
focus on the main contributors to the obesity epidemic in
the United States: too much fast food, too many soft
drinks, and lack of physical activity. The movie Super
Size Me tells one man's story of eating only McDonald's
food for one month, and the damage it did to his health.
Since 1980, the total number of obese and overweight
Americans has doubled. California ranks 36th in adult
obesity with 22.7 percent and 32nd in childhood obesity
with 13.2 percent. Obesity is second only to smoking as
the most preventable cause of death.
The percentage of children who are obese has more than
tripled since the 1970s. Seventeen percent of kids are now
obese, which means they are at or above the 95th percentile
for weight in relation to height; an additional 17 percent
are overweight, or at or over the 85th percentile.
The high sugar and fat content of fast food, combined with
lack of exercise, creates a chain of events that put the
body into chemical stress. Chemical stress creates the
hormones that create the belly fat.
The digestive system is down-regulated when the body is
under stress and one of the symptoms is belly fat. There
are four basic body types that determine where fat is
distributed in the body; liver, ovary, thyroid and adrenal,
and each one of these affects the other.
How your body utilizes the carbohydrates and sugar that you
eat determines the ratio of two hormones, insulin and
glucagon. Both are released by the pancreas; glucagon is
released when blood-sugar levels are low, and insulin is
released when blood-sugar levels are high. A higher
proportion of insulin means that more sugar will be stored
as fat. A higher proportion of glucagon means that more fat
will be broken down and will be used as either building
materials or fuel for the body.
When our system is stressed in any of the areas of the
Triad of Health; structural, chemical, or emotional, the
body responds with the same stress response, no matter the
source. The brain stimulates the adrenal glands to release
cortisol, which acts on the liver to break down glycogen
into sugar for "fight-or-flight" which in turn triggers the
release of insulin. The insulin brings the sugar into play
for action, and if none is needed by the muscles, the sugar
goes back to the liver. If not needed there because the
liver has reached its maximum capacity for it, it goes to
fat storage.
Thus, as our bodies adapt to a chronic state of stress, say
a structural or emotional stress, our hormones become out
of balance creating an additional chemical stress on our
system.
In the body, everything truly does affect everything else.
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Dr. Michael B. Roth has been a holistic chiropractor for 23
years. His goal is to transform the health care system
from crisis/reactive care to a wellness model of health.
Dr. Roth is a dynamic speaker on health and wellness who
can motivate and transform your audience and you to bring
your own health and well-being to a new level!
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