Healthy Eating Having washboard abs might just save your life. According to a study done on heart disease by the Coronary Care Unit at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, they found a strong correlation between belly size and plaque inside your arteries. What they found after a study on 2,700 men and women between the ages of 30 and 65 were not surprising. After factoring out all other variables, a disproportion in belly to hip ratio nearly doubled the chance of heart disease. According to the researchers calcium deposits collect years before the onset of chest pains or a heart attack.

This news isn’t likely to change very much, as we all know being healthy is a worthy and attainable goal. Being unhealthy already has also been associated with a multitude of health risks and complications.

Also, a note about the use of the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a measurement of health isn’t without its legitimacy concerns. According to the BMI a muscular football player is considered obese, which is saying they are less healthy then the average person of the same BMI. The reason is the BMI doesn’t take into account that muscle weighs more then fat, so according to the BMI such a person is obese because he weighs more.

The study also has shown that a slight improvement in waist size does reduce the risk of disease. If people looked at it from the prospective of “portion control” rather then “over control” or “no control”, it makes the goal of becoming more healthy more attainable and rewarding.

Source doc: healthday

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