THE DANGER OF A BEER BELLY: “It has been known for some time that having an ‘apple’ shape increases the risk for disease and death. But the new study found that a man of normal B.M.I. with an abnormally large belly has an 87 percent higher risk for death than a man with the same B.M.I. but a normal waist-to-hip ratio. Pot-bellied women of normal B.M.I. have a 48 percent higher risk than women with normal B.M.I. and normal belly fat. . . . The study, in Annals of Internal Medicine, found that people with normal weight and central obesity have worse long-term survival than anyone of any weight with normal fat distribution. For example, compared with an overweight or obese man with normal waist-to-hip ratio, men of normal weight with central obesity were at more than twice the risk for death, which may help to explain the ‘obesity paradox,’ in which obesity seems to protect against heart disease in some people. . . . Having a normal weight is not enough. It’s good only if the distribution of fat is healthy.”
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