Could his beer belly lead to health problems?
AFTER a hectic day at work, a cold drink, especially with a little alcohol, often contains the right amount of magic to soothe your man’s mind and help relieve the day’s stresses. But after engaging in the habit for a while, there is often a change in body structure, where the tummy morphs into a protruding ball — a beer belly.
And while this can take away from your man’s physical attractiveness, it can also lead to health concerns.
“A beer belly is used to refer to people who have an excess amount of fat around their internal organs that causes protuberant fat,” said consultant general, laparoscopic and obesity surgeon Dr Alfred Dawes.
He said that the term ‘beer belly’ derived its name from the fact that beer and other alcoholic beverages contain a lot of calories that are essentially sugars and these are stored as fat, since these sugars contain little or no nutritional value. A sedentary lifestyle and poor food choices are also contributing factors.
Dr Dawes pointed out that a single bottle of beer, when consumed, could contribute up to 400 calories, and other alcoholic beverages could contain several hundred more calories, which over time would build up these sugars that are stored as fat, resulting in the protruding bellies.
Beer bellies are common in men because of the way that their bellies store fat.
“The fat around the organs in men is referred to as visceral fat, one of the two ways in which fat is stored in humans, the other being subcutaneous fat. The difference between visceral fat and subcutaneous fat lies in the risk of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance occurs when the body does not react to insulin as normal, so this increased amount of insulin has to be produced by the pancreas, causing it to burn-out,” Dr Dawes explained.
This is said to increase the risk of diabetes as well as cardiovascular diseases.
As such, Dr Dawes advises men to be careful with their caloric intake because they are more at risk of developing these fats around their internal organs.
