Things You should Know about Potbelly

Femi is now a successful businessman, he is married to a very beautiful wife with two kids and he eats regular tasty meals. He was very slim as a young man but now, in his 30s, he is having the time of his life and he has developed a big tummy.

Does Femi’s story sound familiar? well, that is the story of many Nigerian men, as they grow older, they accumulate a lot of fat around their belly, Unfortunately, this health hazard is viewed in our environment as evidence of the arrival of wealth or good living.

What is pot belly?

Potbelly is a term commonly used to refer to abdominal or central obesity, a condition in which there is an outward protrusion of the belly; or an increased diameter of the lower abdomen, resulting from excessive accumulation of fat in the mid-section and ballooning out of the intestines.

Causes of potbelly According to Oladapo Ashiru,  a Professor of Anatomy

The way most people eat is at odds with the needs of the body. Obesity often results from net energy imbalance, in which the individual eats and stores more fat than he or she expends in energy on normal daily activities.

An important dietary habit as regards regimen (time of day when meals are ingested), content (quality of ingested food), and technique (poor chewing habits especially the so-called ‘swallow’) result in fermentation and decay of undigested food, the steady deposit of abdominal fat and slackening of the intestines which, over time, results in a potbelly.

Genetic predisposition: some individuals are said to be deficient in leptin which is a hormone produced by fat cells which tells a person when he or she is full and should stop eating. When you are deficient in leptin you are more likely to overeat and become obese.

Chronic constipation/irregular bowel movement: This leads to a build-up of toxic fecal matter in the colon, the decomposition of which leads to the release of such toxins as putrescine, neurine, and cadaverine. These are re-absorbed into the bloodstream in a process referred to as intestinal auto-intoxication in Mayr Medicine.

So why is having a potbelly dangerous?

#1. Potbelly increases the amount of cholesterol in the blood resulting in an increased risk of heart attack and stroke

#2. Potbelly also releases chemicals that cause inflammation in different parts of the body result in different long-standing medical conditions.

#3. Abdominal obesity has been linked to several health conditions including the following: hypertension, Metabolic Syndrome X (Reaven’s disease), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, erectile dysfunction, and certain cancers