The Big Bottoms Have It
16 Jun 2002
Males often remark, only half-jokingly, that they want to marry a younger woman to care for them in their old age. If that’s their motive, should age be the only factor to consider? A recent study shows they should be looking for a particular shaped girl. But alas another report indicates some men may not live long enough to find one.
In 1960 Swedish researchers, suspecting that size might influence health, decided to measure the hips of 1,400 women between the ages of 38 to 60. None of the women were obese. But they were of different shapes when measured by hip size.
The women were followed for 24 years. The result? Women who had pear-shaped bodies with hips larger than their waists were less likely to suffer from heart disease and diabetes than women with thin, scrawny butts. So although it’s oft said that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, being apple-shaped with fat packed around the abdomen may lead to an earlier demise.
This wasn’t the first study to analyze body configuration. Previous studies had also suggested it’s better to look like a pear than an apple.
Dr. Horatio Oria is an obesity surgeon in Houston, Texas. His research also shows that abdominal obesity increases the risk of heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, gallbladder disease and sudden death. Those who were pear-shaped were less likely to suffer from these diseases.
Luckily there’s some good news for apple-shaped people. Fat cells in the midsection are large and metabolically more active. This makes it easier to lose weight around the waist.
Conversely, the smaller fat cells in the lower body are less metabolically active. That’s why it takes a major effort to shed pounds around the hips.
My advice is not to become too complacent if you have excess fat anywhere. More and more studies show the risk of obesity.
For instance, since 1982 a study at Harvard called “The Harvard Physicians Health Study” has been following 21,000 doctors. None of these doctors had suffered a stroke at the time of enrollment.
It’s news is sobering for those who are overweight. The study showed that as a doctor’s weight increased so did the risk of stroke. And those physicians who were the most obese had twice the risk of succumbing to this disease.
Obesity problems hit close to home. Dr. Gilles Paradis, an associate professor at McGill University, is a lead investigator in the Quebec Child and Adolescent Survey involving 4,000 Quebec school children. 79 percent of the children in the study were French-Canadian.
Dr. Paradis’ findings are ominous. He claims that 5 to 9 percent of Quebec children have a condition called the “insulin resistance syndrome”. The pancreas is producing sufficient insulin, but due to obesity the cells are unable to use it properly. These children have increased serum triglycerides, decreased HDL (the good cholesterol), increased blood pressure and marked obesity.
The study found the syndrome present in children as young as nine years of age. And that it may involve as many as 9 to 14 percent of Quebec children. The tragedy is that insulin resistance is just one step away from full-blown diabetes.
Some of these male children may not live long enough to find pear-shaped women to care for them. 50 percent of diabetics die from heart attack. They’re 25 X more likely to go blind, 17 X more likely to have kidney failure and 5 X more likely to get gangrene and require amputation of their legs. It’s a national disgrace that one child in five born today will become diabetic.
A report from the World Health Organization (WHO) says that the number of people affected by obesity is so vast that the problems of the obese threaten to overwhelm the medical services of many countries.
The frugal Scots are worried about the cost since 62 percent of men and 54 percent of women are obese. In fact, they’re so concerned they’ve appointed a “food czar”. Some say “fat chance it will work”. One Scottish newspaper says that the craze to appoint “czars” to deal with every problem means there will be more czars in Britain than there were in Russia!
In the meantime until some czar finds a way to push people away from the table much better to have a round bottom and a small waist. More important, parents must cast a wary eye at eating habits of their children.
