Stressful Times...?

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Even If You’re Skinny, You Can Have a Fat Problem…
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Dr James Bell, head of the Medical Research Council Centre at Imperial College London, has done research recently on the prevalence of visceral fat in our present society.
 
Dr Bell did tests on a thirty something-year-old who was thin, relatively active in his work, had a fairly stressful job, did not smoke, drank irregularly and very moderately, but was found to have high visceral fat content in his body.
 
Visceral fat is different from body fat. Because it builds in the area of the gut, it gets that name.
 
This fat is seen as the culprit of many illnesses, type two diabetes, stroke, breast cancer, some other internal cancers, and Alzheimer’s disease.
 
 The first thing Dr Bell suggested to be addressed in the elimination of visceral fat was the daily diet. He was emphatic about this, citing processed foods , fast foods, high-sugar high-fat takeaway foods, and all the snack-type foods that we eat so much of,  as the main contributors to this condition.
 
The other factor that urgently needs to be addressed, he said, is that of stress. The stress hormone, cortisol , Increases how much visceral fat the body can store. Reducing stress in your life will make it easier not only to stop building visceral fat, but to reverse the whole process.
 
To this end Dr Bell recommended very strongly  the practice of meditation, mindful awareness, and stress management tactics.
 
He stated that these practices need to be taken seriously, and not just as “A nice thing to do“.
 
What Dr Bell is saying is that we need to do the simple things well, and not only do them well, but frequently, so that they become part of our lives.
 
Life-Style, that is, the style of our lives, is such today that our bodies, and our minds, have not yet reached that stage of evolution where they can deal with the speed, the urgency, the relentlessness of how we exist.
 
The mind, the body, the very essence of our being, need care and well-intended attention; like the kind of concern we give to our cars, computers, and other chattels  of our lives.
 

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