- ‘An Enemy of the People’ Review: Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli Set Off Sparks in Visceral Distillation of 1882 Ibsen Drama Hollywood Reporter
- Review: Ibsen’s ‘Enemy of the People,’ Starring Jeremy Strong The New York Times
- An Enemy of the People review – Jeremy Strong impresses in timely Ibsen drama The Guardian
- ‘An Enemy Of The People’ Broadway Review: Jeremy Strong & Michael Imperioli In Battle For Our Times Deadline
- Jeremy Strong in Broadway’s ‘Enemy of the People’ review: Weirdly underwhelming The Washington Post
Tag Archives: Visceral
A Nutritionist Tells Us How To Reduce Visceral Fat
This article has been updated since its initial publish date with more expert insight.
While some weight gain is not all bad and even sometimes necessary for our health, visceral fat is another matter. This kind of fat, experts warn, is not seen with the naked eye, and wraps around the abdominal organs deep inside the body. To avoid this, it’s imperative to create a balanced diet, and to avoid eating certain foods and carbohydrates every day. We checked in with health and nutrition experts for more information.
Read on for details regarding 3 carbs to skip (white flour, white rice, and other processed foods) from Lisa Richards, registered nutritionist and creator of The Candida Diet and Dr. Gabriela Rodríguez Ruiz, MD, PhD, FACS, board-certified bariatric surgeon at VIDA Wellness and Beauty.
READ MORE: 5 Processed Foods Dietitians Want You To Cut From Your Diet In 2023 Because They Cause Visceral Fat
How Refined Carbs Lead To Visceral Fat
White flour, white rice and other processed foods all fall under the category of refined carbohydrates, Richards says, and these must be avoided if your goal is to prevent unnecessary weight gain. “Refined carbohydrates have many negative side effects for our health and belly fat is just one of them,” she explains.
White and enriched breads in particular, have undergone a refining process where the “fiber and beneficial nutrients are removed,” Richards notes, and, “possibly replaced with synthetic versions.” These refined carbs, she adds, lead to “quick sugar spikes and inflammation, both of which stall weight loss and damage health.”
Rodríguez agrees, and stresses to “avoid white flour, white rice, and processed foods made with these ingredients.” Specifically, she says, since white flour has been refined, it is “easily digested and turned into sugar, which raises insulin levels and leads to fat storage.”
Processed foods made with white flour are also “high in calories and low in nutrients,” she points out. “You don’t quickly get full after eating them, which can lead to overeating without you even realizing it,” she warns, and this can contribute to weight gain.
White rice is another carb to avoid, Rodríguez says. She deems it to be a high-glycemic food, which means it causes a quick spike in blood sugar levels. This, too, she says, can lead to “insulin resistance and fat storage, especially in the abdominal area.”
White rice is high in carbohydrates but low in fiber, and she explains that a one-cup serving provides 242 calories, 53.4 grams of carbs, and only 0.6 grams of fiber. “A low-fiber diet has been linked to weight gain and obesity because it does not provide the satiety (fullness) that fiber does,” she adds.
What To Eat Instead
To avoid these carbs and the associated weight gain, Rodríguez recommends eating whole grains, like brown rice and quinoa, and beans. “Incorporating more vegetables and fruits into your diet can also help, as they are high in fiber and water, which allows you to feel full,” she says. In addtion, she dubs oranges and pineapples to be “particularly good at helping cut visceral fat, as they are full of nutrients, fiber, and vitamin C.”
A rule of thumb, Richards concludes, is to look at the ingredients list and avoid any breads that start with ‘enriched.’ A diet high in protein, she suggests, can help to reduce and prevent belly fat. “Lean protein both boosts metabolism and increases satiety,” she says, and “an increased metabolism will lead to weight loss.”
Having a feeling of fullness, she continues, will “prevent overeating and indulging in calorie-dense, sugar-laden foods.” Some high-protein foods she advises to consume to lose your belly fat and keep it off include “lean poultry, fish, nuts, eggs, low-fat cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, chia, lentils, and quinoa.”
Green Mediterranean Diet Reduces Twice As Much Visceral Fat
According to a study in the peer-reviewed medical journal BMC Medicine, the green Mediterranean diet significantly reduces visceral fat. In fact, it reduced visceral fat by twice as much as the regular Mediterranean diet.
The Green Mediterranean diet reduces twice as much visceral fat as the Mediterranean diet.
Reducing visceral fat is the true goal of weight loss.
The green Mediterranean diet (MED) significantly reduces visceral adipose tissue, a type of fat around internal organs that is much more dangerous than the extra “tire” around your waist. The green Mediterranean diet was pitted against the Mediterranean diet and a healthy diet in a large-scale clinical interventional trial- the DIRECT PLUS. Subsequent analysis found that the green Med diet reduced visceral fat by 14.1%, the Med diet by 6.0%, and the healthy diet by 4.2%. The study was published in the journal BMC Medicine.
The green-Mediterranean diet is a modified Mediterranean diet that is further enriched with dietary polyphenols (beneficial plant compounds with antioxidant properties) and lower in red/processed meat.
Reducing visceral fat is considered the true goal of weight loss as it is a more important indicator than a person’s weight or the circumference of their waist. Visceral fat aggregates over time between organs and produces hormones and poisons linked to heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and premature death.
The research was led by Prof. Iris Shai of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, an adjunct Professor from the Harvard School of Public Health, and an Honorary Professor, University of Leipzig, Germany, together with her doctoral student Dr. Hila Zelicha and Italian, German, and American colleagues.
The DIRECT-PLUS trial research team was the first to introduce the concept of the green-Mediterranean diet. This modified MED diet is further enriched with dietary polyphenols and lower in red/processed meat than the traditional healthy MED diet. On top of a daily intake of walnuts (28 grams), the participants consumed 3-4 cups of green tea/day and 100 grams (frozen cubes) of duckweed green shake/day. The aquatic green plant duckweed is high in bioavailable protein, iron, B12, vitamins, minerals, and polyphenols and substituted meat intake.
The Mediterranean diet is inspired by the eating habits of people who live near the Mediterranean Sea. The core elements of this diet include proportionally high consumption of unprocessed cereals, legumes, olive oil, fruits, and vegetables, and moderate consumption of fish, dairy products (mostly cheese and yogurt), and meat products.
The team has shown in previous studies that the green MED diet has a variety of salutary effects ranging from the microbiome to age-related degenerative diseases.
Two hundred and ninety-four participants took part in the 18-month-long trial.
“A healthy lifestyle is a strong basis for any weight loss program. We learned from the results of our experiment that the quality of food is no less important than the number of calories consumed and the goal today is to understand the mechanisms of various nutrients, for example, positive ones such as the polyphenols, and negative ones such as empty carbohydrates and processed red meat, on the pace of fat cell differentiation and their aggregation in the viscera,” says Prof. Shai.
“A 14% reduction in visceral fat is a dramatic achievement for making simple changes to your diet and lifestyle. Weight loss is an important goal only if it is accompanied by impressive results in reducing adipose tissue,” notes Dr. Hila Zelicha.
Reference: “The effect of high-polyphenol Mediterranean diet on visceral adiposity: the DIRECT PLUS randomized controlled trial” by Hila Zelicha, Nora Kloting, Alon Kaplan, Anat Yaskolka Meir, Ehud Rinott, Gal Tsaban, Yoash Chassidim, Matthias Bluher, Uta Ceglarek, Berend Isermann, Michael Stumvoll, Rita Nana Quayson, Martin von Bergen, Beatrice Engelmann, Ulrike E. Rolle-Kampczyk, Sven-Bastiaan Haange, Kieran M. Tuohy, Camilla Diotallevi, Ilan Shelef, Frank B. Hu, Meir J. Stampfer and Iris Shai, 30 September 2022, BMC Medicine.
DOI: 10.1186/s12916-022-02525-8
This work was funded by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Project number 209933838- SFB 1052; the Rosetrees trust (grant A2623); Israel Ministry of Health grant 87472511; Israel Ministry of Science and Technology grant 3-13604; and the California Walnuts Commission.
None of the funding providers was involved in any stage of the design, conduct, or analysis of the study and they had no access to the study results before publication.
The Green Mediterranean Diet Reduces Twice as Much Visceral Fat as the Mediterranean Diet and 10% More Than a Healthy Diet
Summary: A modified version of the Mediterranean diet called the green Mediterranean diet, which consists of enriched dietary polyphenols such as green tea, walnuts, and duckweed, and decreased red meats, reduced more visceral fat than the traditional Mediterranean diet or a traditional diet plan.
Source: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
The green Mediterranean diet (MED) significantly reduces visceral adipose tissue, a type of fat around internal organs that is much more dangerous than the extra “tire” around your waist.
The green Mediterranean diet was pitted against the Mediterranean diet and a healthy diet in a large-scale clinical interventional trial- the DIRECT PLUS. Subsequent analysis found that the green Med diet reduced visceral fat by 14%, the Med diet by 7% and the healthy diet by 4.5%.
The study was published in BMC Medicine.
Reducing visceral fat is considered the true goal of weight loss as it is a more important indicator than a person’s weight or the circumference of their waist. Visceral fat aggregates over time between organs and produces hormones and poisons linked to heart disease, diabetes, dementia and premature death.
The research was led by Prof. Iris Shai of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, an adjunct Professor from the Harvard School of Public Health, and an Honorary Professor, University of Leipzig, Germany, together with her doctoral student Dr. Hila Zelicha and Italian, German, and American colleagues.
The DIRECT-PLUS trial research team was the first to introduce the concept of the green-Mediterranean diet. This modified MED diet is further enriched with dietary polyphenols and lower in red/processed meat than the traditional healthy MED diet. On top of a daily intake of walnuts (28 grams), the participants consumed 3-4 cups of green tea/day and 100 grams (frozen cubes) of duckweed green shake/day. The aquatic green plant duckweed is high in bioavailable protein, iron, B12, vitamins, minerals, and polyphenols and substituted meat intake.
The team has shown in previous studies that the green MED diet has a variety of salutary effects ranging from the microbiome to age-related degenerative diseases.
Two hundred and ninety four participants took part in the 18-month long trial.
“A healthy lifestyle is a strong basis for any weight loss program. We learned from the results of our experiment that the quality of food is no less important than the number of calories consumed and the goal today is to understand the mechanisms of various nutrients, for example, positive ones such as the polyphenols, and negative ones such as empty carbohydrates and processed red meat, on the pace of fat cell differentiation and their aggregation in the viscera,” says Prof. Shai.
“A 14% reduction in visceral fat is a dramatic achievement for making simple changes to your diet and lifestyle. Weight loss is an important goal only if it is accompanied by impressive results in reducing adipose tissue,” notes Dr. Hila Zelicha.
Funding: This work was funded by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Project number 209933838- SFB 1052; the Rosetrees trust (grant A2623); Israel Ministry of Health grant 87472511; Israel Ministry of Science and Technology grant 3-13604; and the California Walnuts Commission.
None of the funding providers was involved in any stage of the design, conduct, or analysis of the study and they had no access to the study results before publication.
About this diet and fat reduction research news
Author: Ehud Zion Waldoks
Source: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Contact: Ehud Zion Waldoks – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access.
“The effect of high-polyphenol Mediterranean diet on visceral adiposity: the DIRECT PLUS randomized controlled trial” by Hila Zelicha et al. BMC Medicine
See also
Abstract
The effect of high-polyphenol Mediterranean diet on visceral adiposity: the DIRECT PLUS randomized controlled trial
Background
Mediterranean (MED) diet is a rich source of polyphenols, which benefit adiposity by several mechanisms. We explored the effect of the green-MED diet, twice fortified in dietary polyphenols and lower in red/processed meat, on visceral adipose tissue (VAT).
Methods
In the 18-month Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial PoLyphenols UnproceSsed (DIRECT-PLUS) weight-loss trial, 294 participants were randomized to (A) healthy dietary guidelines (HDG), (B) MED, or (C) green-MED diets, all combined with physical activity. Both isocaloric MED groups consumed 28 g/day of walnuts (+ 440 mg/day polyphenols). The green-MED group further consumed green tea (3–4 cups/day) and Wolffia globosa (duckweed strain) plant green shake (100 g frozen cubes/day) (+ 800mg/day polyphenols) and reduced red meat intake. We used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantify the abdominal adipose tissues.
Results
Participants (age = 51 years; 88% men; body mass index = 31.2 kg/m2; 29% VAT) had an 89.8% retention rate and 79.3% completed eligible MRIs. While both MED diets reached similar moderate weight (MED: − 2.7%, green-MED: − 3.9%) and waist circumference (MED: − 4.7%, green-MED: − 5.7%) loss, the green-MED dieters doubled the VAT loss (HDG: − 4.2%, MED: − 6.0%, green-MED: − 14.1%; p < 0.05, independent of age, sex, waist circumference, or weight loss). Higher dietary consumption of green tea, walnuts, and Wolffia globosa; lower red meat intake; higher total plasma polyphenols (mainly hippuric acid), and elevated urine urolithin A polyphenol were significantly related to greater VAT loss (p < 0.05, multivariate models).
Conclusions
A green-MED diet, enriched with plant-based polyphenols and lower in red/processed meat, may be a potent intervention to promote visceral adiposity regression.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03020186
How to Reduce the Visceral Fat Around Your Middle — Eat This Not That
A new study from the University of Oxford suggests every extra inch around your middle increases the risk of heart failure by 10%. “A larger waist measurement is often a sign that you have too much visceral fat, which sits around our internal organs and impairs the way our heart and blood vessels function,” says James Leiper, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation. “Heart failure is a chronic and incurable condition that worsens over time, so these findings underline the importance of managing your weight now. People who carry more weight around their middle have an increased risk of higher cholesterol, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. These risk factors are all closely linked with heart and circulatory diseases, which can then increase the risk of heart failure.” Worried about your belly fat? Here are five scientifically-proven ways to fight visceral fat. Read on—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs You’ve Already Had COVID.
Research shows that eating soluble fiber from vegetables, fruit, and beans can help decrease belly fat. “We know that a higher rate of visceral fat is associated with high blood pressure, diabetes and fatty liver disease,” says Kristen Hairston, MD, assistant professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest Baptist and lead researcher on the study. “Our study found that making a few simple changes can have a big health impact… There is mounting evidence that eating more soluble fiber and increasing exercise reduces visceral or belly fat, although we still don’t know how it works. Although the fiber-obesity relationship has been extensively studied, the relationship between fiber and specific fat deposits has not. Our study is valuable because it provides specific information on how dietary fiber, especially soluble fiber, may affect weight accumulation through abdominal fat deposits.”
Physical inactivity can lead to a significant increase in visceral fat. “The results of our investigation show that in sedentary overweight adults who continue to choose a sedentary lifestyle the detrimental effects are worse and more rapid than we previously thought,” says Cris Slentz, PhD. However, “Participants who exercised at a level equivalent to 17 miles of jogging each week saw significant declines in visceral fat, subcutaneous abdominal fat and total abdominal fat. While this may seem like a lot of exercise our previously sedentary and overweight subjects were quite capable of doing this amount.”
Sugary drinks are strongly linked to excess belly fat, experts warn. “There is evidence linking sugar-sweetened beverages with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes,” says Caroline S. Fox, MD, MPH, lead study author and a former investigator with the Framingham Heart Study of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. “Our message to consumers is to follow the current dietary guidelines and to be mindful of how much sugar-sweetened beverages they drink. To policy makers, this study adds another piece of evidence to the growing body of research suggesting sugar-sweetened beverages may be harmful to our health.”
Too little sleep is linked with increased belly fat for people under 40, experts say. “We put a lot of stock in diet,” says Dr. Hairston. “But this study brings up some interesting questions about the way we live. We may need to start looking at other behaviors—besides daily food choices—that could be contributing to the obesity epidemic in younger age groups. We don’t really know yet why this wasn’t seen in participants over 40, but it was clear that, in individuals under 40, it is worse to get five or less hours of sleep on average each night than it is to get eight or more hours. However, both may be detrimental and, in general, people should aim for six to eight hours of sleep each night.”
“The heavier you are, the fuller the standard areas to store fat become, meaning that the fat ends up being deposited around your abdominal organs and your heart,” says Dr. Garth Davis, bariatric surgeon at Houston Methodist. “In surgery with these patients, it’s a very short distance from the skin to the belly, but then the belly is just filled with fat — fat in the liver, fat lining the intestines, fat everywhere.”
Ferozan Mast
Ferozan Mast is a science, health and wellness writer with a passion for making science and research-backed information accessible to a general audience. Read more about Ferozan
‘A visceral experience of psychosis’: why one artist spent three years painting bipolar disorder | Books
Up a steep road to the top of a ridge, all the mundane falls away.
From here, between the surrounding hills of the Northern Rivers region of NSW, the great heft of Wollumbin Mt Warning is revealed – its forested flanks a blue haze, its rock face summit glistening in the sun. Wedge-tailed eagles ride the thermals above, and rainforest redolent with wildlife runs in every direction.
It is to this place, Uki in the Tweed shire, that Matt Ottley retreated more than 10 years ago. The musician, artist and children’s book author lives surrounded by a raucous avian chorus. In this house – his refuge – he has found peace from the pain of his past.
Ottley has always had a heightened sensitivity to the hurt and beauty of the world. It’s something he shares with the young protagonist in his latest release, The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness. It’s a monumental project comprising not just the book but an accompanying symphonic score on CD, which was performed by a Czech orchestra, and a 50-minute animation created from the book’s 74 paintings and illustrations which is screening in small theatres around the country.
The story follows a boy who, like Ottley, sees things differently. “His gift showed him things so beautiful they made him cry. But it also tormented him with the pain of others that made him feel numb,” it reads. The narrative unfolds around the metaphor of a tree growing inside him: its flower is ecstasy, its fruit is sadness. It was inspired by Ottley’s bipolar disorder, which he was diagnosed with in his 40s.
“The tree really came out of one of my own psychotic experiences where I thought I had something growing inside me,” he says. “It was a plant that was sort of floral in nature. That’s what I wanted to express.”
In the book, the tree morphs into a flying cow, a reptile, then a blue bird, which flies across mountains and oceans into a world of “beauty and wonder”. All of the stages of the journey represent the stages of psychosis – such as in an ancient city, when it encounters an egocentric sovereign with the huge bulbous body of an insect.
“She is the sort of infantile self at the heart of psychosis,” Ottley says. “When you are in that state the other doesn’t exist. The world has become so warped and you’re trying to navigate your way in it.”
Flying over valleys and hills, the boy travels through the stages of fragility and revelation into darkness and tempest – until he comes back into the world and himself with “quietude” and hope.
As we sit on his terrace overlooking the natural vista, freshly baked muffins are placed on the table by Ottley’s partner, Tina Wilson. Ottley is a gentle man, delicate and kind of beatific with long white hair. One of the country’s most popular author-illustrators, he has worked on more than 40 titles – among them last year’s prime minister’s literary award-winning kids book How To Make A Bird, written by Meg McKinlay.
But he says the scope of his creativity has come at a terrible price. It wasn’t until his mid-40s that Ottley was properly diagnosed and treated for type 1 bipolar disorder. By then, he had suffered countless frightening periods of mania and depression, psychotic episodes that would end in psyche wards, and two suicide attempts.
“I have had some very high level creative abilities that are a result of being bipolar – but it is a huge price to pay for that,” Ottley said. “If you could have access to a magic button that would turn this illness off, most people would say no because of the creativity. But I would says yes.
“If I could relive my life without any of the creativity, if I could turn this illness off and live a quiet life, with a quiet mind, I would.”
He used to hide his illness, living a life of secrecy and shame. As a teenager he “would just go to ground or go to my room and ride it out. Until I was in my 40s, I just felt so alone with it.”
Ottley spent the first 11 years of his life in Papua New Guinea at a time when the country was becoming increasingly dangerous for Australians. When he was nine he was sexually assaulted by a man, a trauma he believes may have triggered a genetic predisposition to bipolar disorder.
“The way it’s explained to me is that you basically inherit a number of genes that – when they are switched on – you start to experience the illness. It can be trauma that switches those genes on.”
In the following decades, whatever he tried, his illness would be waiting to grab him and drag him down. He would become unwell, crash and burn and run. He failed school – “I just couldn’t do it” – and followed his father and brother into the bush to work as a stockman, but says he “was not good at that sort of work”. He studied at Julian Ashton art school, became unwell, went bush again. Returning to the bush became “a pattern”. He studied music at Wollongong University, but couldn’t complete that either. “I actually don’t have any educational qualifications,” he says.
Ottley also has synaesthesia, a neurological condition. “Sound starts to become very colourful and I see lots of shapes, and start becoming hypersensitive to sound and light.” In a rehearsal with musicians he can tell if someone is a bit off-key, “because it is the wrong colour”.
The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness had its genesis in two periods of illness. During a severe episode in 2010, Ottley lost the ability to understand speech. But music was “crystal clear,” he says, “so I started writing music”.
“The sound I was hearing was 97 instruments. I wanted a string family of 50 players, a bass clarinet, a bassoon.” This would become the overture to the symphonic soundtrack to the book, with tumultuous crescendos falling to wailing laments; recorded by the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra and the 40-voice Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno, it is the sound of psychosis.
“If you start creating an orchestral sound in your head and you’re becoming unwell and you tip into psychosis, you can actually hear it like it’s out there. It’s a 68-part fugue that is meant to represent the clamour of noise in a person’s head, whether it is multiple voices or any other kind of auditory hallucination that is happening, and just becomes unbearable and you just want it to stop.”
A couple of years later, keeping a recovery journal after another serious episode, he wrote the poem which would become the text of The Tree of Ecstasy. “It just sort of dropped out of the universe.”
Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s weekend culture and lifestyle email
The music took two years to compose, and the 74 artworks took three years to paint. Together it is a towering work for adults and children; a luminous, intense and ultimately beautiful journey through the stages of psychosis, and out the other side. “I wanted to create a metaphorical experience that goes straight to the emotional centres, to give people a visceral experience of what it feels like,” Ottley says.
“I think the arts are a direct conduit to our deeper emotional thinking that bypasses logical, superficial thinking, and can get right at the heart of what we feel about something.”
Ottley’s aim is to destigmatise mental illness, to illuminate the experience of those who don’t live with bipolar disorder and advocate for those who do. “Probably the message is that it cannot be about judgment,” he says. “I think all things can be achieved through empathy. I encourage people not to feel humiliated about those aspects of their life, or the thoughts they have around self-harm or harming others. To be really, really open from a very early stage about these things. Because of the deep shame that surrounds these things people just remain closed until it is too late.
“You can get a diagnosis, you can get treatment. Go out into the world and find the people you need to talk to, and ask for their forgiveness for your behaviours, and forgive yourself as well. The condition doesn’t go away, but life goes on and you can find peace.”
Creativity has always been Ottley’s salvation – “I could always turn to that” – but it is the love of his partner and friends that has brought him to relative tranquility.
Likewise, his book ends with his protagonist hearing the distant voices of those who loved him calling him back.
“I am here” he called. And so he came back into the world. And still the Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness was within him. And still it grew flowers. And still it bore fruit.
-
The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness it out now through Dirt Lane Press. The animation will be screened on 23 June at the University of Sydney, on 18 and 21 August at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, and on 21 and 22 September at the State Library in Perth
Scientists Reveal Another Consequence of Poor Sleep: More Belly Fat
If you need another reason to make sure you’re getting a decent amount of shut-eye each night, a new study found insufficient sleep is linked with an increase in fat accumulation – especially unhealthy abdominal fat in the belly.
The randomized experiment involved 12 healthy, non-obese volunteers over a period of 21 days, finding that a lack of sufficient sleep in sleep-restricted participants was linked to a 9 percent increase in total abdominal fat area and an 11 percent increase in abdominal visceral fat.
This kind of visceral fat builds up deep inside the abdomen around internal organs, and has previously been linked to an increased risk of cardiac and metabolic diseases.
While fat is normally deposited under the skin by the body, not getting enough sleep seems to move it deeper to the visceral areas around the organs, the researchers say, where it can potentially cause more damage.
(Covassin et al., Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2022)
Above: A breakdown of the consequences of insufficient sleep in the experiment.
“Inadequate sleep appears to redirect fat to the more dangerous visceral compartment,” says cardiologist Virend Somers from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
“Importantly, although during recovery sleep there was a decrease in calorie intake and weight, visceral fat continued to increase. This suggests that inadequate sleep is a previously unrecognized trigger for visceral fat deposition, and that catch-up sleep, at least in the short term, does not reverse the visceral fat accumulation.”
The volunteers were split into two groups over the course of the experiment, with one group getting nine hours of sleep per night, and the other group having to get by with just four hours of sleep, over the course of two weeks. Three months later, the tests were repeated with the participants swapping groups.
As well as the differences in visceral fat build-up, the researchers noticed that the participants who were getting less sleep were also consuming an average of more than 300 extra calories per day, taking in around 13 percent more protein and 17 percent more fat. Energy expenditure stayed mostly the same.
Throughout the study, the team monitored energy intake and expenditure, body weight, body composition, fat distribution (including visceral fat inside the belly), and circulating appetite biomarkers – and some of the apparent biological changes wouldn’t have been noticed outside of a full scientific evaluation, the researchers say.
“The visceral fat accumulation was only detected by CT scan and would otherwise have been missed, especially since the increase in weight was quite modest – only about a pound,” says first author of the study Naima Covassin, a cardiovascular medicine researcher at the Mayo Clinic.
“Measures of weight alone would be falsely reassuring in terms of the health consequences of inadequate sleep.”
That the belly fat build-up is difficult to spot makes it even more dangerous. Around one-third of adults in the US don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis, with factors such as shift work and late-night use of screens both contributing to the problem.
We know that getting enough sleep is important for brain functions such as memory, and for keeping the body well hydrated, and for protecting against dementia, and for a host of other mental and physical health reasons. What this study helps to show is that there can be a lot of knock-on effects in terms of other health risks too.
As well as making sure our periods of sleep are regular and for long enough durations, the researchers recommend increased exercise and healthy food choices as ways of preventing belly fat accumulation.
“In the long term, these findings implicate inadequate sleep as a contributor to the epidemics of obesity, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases,” says Somers.
The research has been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The Best Ways to Shrink Visceral Fat, Says Science — Eat This Not That
Visceral fat is dangerous fat that wraps around the organs deep inside your abdomen. Unlike subcutaneous fat, which you can touch and feel, visceral fat is not always easy to spot and it can be hard to tell how much of it you might have. Belly fat is linked to a plethora of serious health conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes—if you’re worried about how to get rid of your visceral fat, here’s what the experts recommend. Read on—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs COVID is Hurting You—Even After a Negative Test.
It’s easy to let the extra pounds creep up, especially during a pandemic—but when clothes start feeling uncomfortably tight, it’s time to pull out the tape measure. “You can use a tape measure to get a good idea of whether you’ve packed on too many pounds around your abdomen,” says Julie Chen, MD. “Place the tape measure around your belly button and level the sides at the top of your hip bones. For men, a waist measurement of 40 inches is a sign of too much visceral fat. For women, a waist measurement of 35 inches is considered high risk.”
RELATED: Science Says Here’s How to Lose Abdominal Fat
Want to get rid of that dangerous belly fat? Regular exercise is non-negotiable. “Studies have shown that you can help trim visceral fat or prevent its growth with both aerobic activity (such as brisk walking) and strength training (exercising with weights),” Harvard Health advises. “Spot exercises, such as sit-ups, can tighten abdominal muscles but won’t get at visceral fat. Exercise can also help keep fat from coming back.”
RELATED: Most People are Getting Heart Attacks This Way, Experts Say
If removing abdominal fat is a serious health goal, sugary drinks need to be removed from your diet. “There is evidence linking sugar-sweetened beverages with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes,” says Caroline S. Fox, M.D., M.P.H. “Our message to consumers is to follow the current dietary guidelines and to be mindful of how much sugar-sweetened beverages they drink. To policy makers, this study adds another piece of evidence to the growing body of research suggesting sugar-sweetened beverages may be harmful to our health.”
RELATED: I’m a Doctor and Here’s the #1 Sign You Have Alzheimer’s
Not a fan of cardio? Try strength training instead. “A lot of people think that if you want to lose weight, you need to go out and run,” says Dr Mandy Hagstrom, exercise physiologist and senior lecturer at UNSW Medicine & Health. “But our findings show that even when strength training is done on its own, it still causes a favorable loss of body fat without having to consciously diet or go running.”
RELATED: Secret Health Tricks for People Over 60, Say Doctors
“Sleep more, stress less,” says Trinh Le, MPH, RD. “It’s easier said than done, but in order to take care of your physical body, you have to take care of your mental state. Sleep loss and stress can sabotage your health and fitness goals, so learn more about getting a quality night’s rest and use meditation or yoga to calm your mind. Remember, it’s not just about your health; it’s about your happiness, too.” And to live your healthiest life, don’t miss this life-saving advice I’m a Doctor and Here’s the #1 Sign You Have Cancer.
How to lose visceral fat: Coconut oil could reduce visceral fat in just 28 days
Visceral fat is excess fat that is buried in the abdominal cavity, encasing the internal organs. It isn’t noticeable to the eye, so individuals may appear outwardly lean. People who have a potbelly, however, are more likely to have visceral fat. Fortunately, one food touted for its cholesterol-lowering effects may reduce the fat over a span of 28 days, according to a study.
Visceral fat is notorious because it contributes to the secretion of harmful chemicals in the blood, which induce low-grade inflammation.
This inflammation contributes to the development of atherosclerosis, which can lead to cardiovascular events like heart attack.
Medical advice for tackling the condition typically includes reducing intake of sugary drinks and saturated fat.
But adding certain types of fat to one’s diet may in fact be beneficial.
READ MORE: Visceral fat: The bread that causes ‘significant’ reductions in belly fat within ‘weeks’
The authors noted: “Only waist circumference was significantly reduced, with a mean reduction of 2,86 cm [or 0.97 percent] from initial measures.
“Waist circumference reduction was only seen in males. There were no changes in the lipid profile.”
The authors concluded the study with the following statement: “Virgin coconut oil is efficacious for waist circumference reduction especially in males and it is safe for use in humans.”
The findings were later echoed in a body of research, published in the Journal of Lipids in 2009, that coconut oil reduced abdominal fat over a period of 12-weeks.
Over the course of the study, all participants were instructed to follow a balanced diet and walk for 50 minutes per day.
The results revealed that only the group ingesting coconut oil saw reductions in their waist circumference.
This group also saw an increase in HDL cholesterol levels, which helps the body eliminate “bad” LDL cholesterol.
Further investigations into the weight loss effects of coconut oil have attributed the effects to the way medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) are digested by the stomach, which helps boost metabolism and increase energy.
Drinking Habits To Avoid if You Don’t Want Visceral Fat, Say Dietitians — Eat This Not That
It’s more than likely that you’ve heard of visceral fat and its side effects. That’s because it’s known as the “dangerous” type of fat, and if someone is carrying around excess amounts, it may increase their risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers.
“The most dangerous type of fat is visceral fat because it’s the kind that accumulates around your internal organs and causes metabolic dysfunction,” says Ronald Smith, RD.
Although decreasing visceral fat requires a change in lifestyle, diet, and movement, there are certain eating and drinking habits that can either help or harm your progress of trying to reduce it.
Continue reading to learn about the drinking habits you’ll want to avoid if you don’t want excess visceral fat, and for more healthy eating tips, make sure to check out The #1 Drink to Avoid Visceral Fat, Says Science.
Soda is one of the trickiest drinks when you’re trying to lose weight, especially if you’re trying to lose visceral fat. “These are a major source of calories in many people’s diets, and they typically contain large amounts of sugar which can cause weight gain if consumed in excess,” says Smith.
A study from the Journal of Nutrition found that those who consumed soda on a daily basis had a higher percentage of visceral fat on their body. “If you want to cut down on soft drinks, it’s best to switch from regular sodas to water, tea, or coffee instead,” says Smith.
RELATED: Sign up for our newsletter to get daily recipes and food news in your inbox!
According to a study from the International Journal of Obesity, daily consumption of alcohol was associated with an increase in visceral and abdominal fat.
“Drinking alcohol is one of the worst things you can do to create visceral fat,” says Smith, “and this is because of ingredients in alcohol called congeners, which make your body store more fat around your organs, speeding up the process of gaining weight around your middle.”
RELATED: The Worst Side Effect of Drinking Alcohol, Says Dietitian
“Drinking juice beverages can contribute to weight gain if consumed in excess,” says Smith. This is because store-bought juice beverages are often loaded with added sugars like high fructose corn syrup.
Harvard Health Publishing suggests that when you’re trying to burn off visceral fat, you may want to avoid things like refined carbohydrates, white bread, and sugary beverages.
Combining your alcohol with an energy drink is a sneaky culprit and one that you may not realize is contributing to weight gain.
“Red Bull may give you wings, but it’s a sugar bomb loaded with empty calories,” says Smith, “in fact, a study found that adding an energy drink to your beer boosted the number of calories by 10% and participants didn’t compensate by eating fewer calories later in the day or the next morning.”
Read these next: