Pot Belly = Dementia!

In USA Today, there was another interesting nutrition article outlining a report that basically says that belly-fat is no good for your brain! It's already linked to heart disease and diabetes, among other health concerns. The Harvard report stated that having a pot belly in your forties roughly triples your risk of dementia later in life! The best news for those with a belly is that if you do lose weight, it's likely to come off right where it counts, measurably improving your health right away.
Cortisol, the hormone primarily responsible for the "stress response" may be responsible for much of the visceral fat that deposits in your midsection. So in addition to losing weight, reducing stress may have a great impact on reducing the size of your pot belly!

Extreme Thinness - Outlawed!

In USA Today, there was an article recently about a new bill has been passed that makes "excessive thinness" a crime in Paris, France! It could mean a $70,000 fine or three years behind bars. This law is mainly directed toward terrible websites that explain ways become anorexic-thin! French fashion leaders claim that the industry doesn't promote anorexia, yet in 2006, a model from Brazil died of anorexia, and since the terrible incident, the fashion industry in Italy and Spain have cracked down. While you may think that the US doesn't have to worry too much about people being too thin these days, it may be interesting to note that there are 272,000 patients in the US. In France, the total is 30-40,000, though prevalence is far greater in proportion to France's much smaller population. For more information, go to www.usatoday.com