Having a large gut in midlife increases the chance of dementia in old age, according to new research published Wednesday that suggests that abdominal fat is a bigger risk factor than even family history.
The study of 6,583 adults found that people with the highest amount of abdominal fat between the ages of 40 and 45 were about three times more likely to develop dementia than those with the lowest amount.
By contrast, people who have parents or a sibling with Alzheimer’s face twice the risk of developing the disease.
I’m beginning to suspect that there is a vast waist line conspiriacy against fat people in the press. Obesity is the new watchword for discrimination. If a person is fat, they are going to get all sorts of things that thin people get, only they are going to get it first, and ten times worse than others.
If we look at the history of perception of weight down through the ages, we find one notable characteristic:
What they didn’t have was what they wanted.
Thus a society that lived in a substinence existence (that is hand to mouth) valued and prized the overweight as a symbol of plenty and success and blessing. Hunter/gatherer fertility dieties for example are all fat with large — um, how to put it delicately? — features (that will do, I think).
A society that lived in abundance prized thin-ness as a symbol of blessing and prudence. The dieties of Rome and Greece for example are all thin and athletic.
This is the first time, however, in history (if I recall correctly) that a society has gone so far in a campaign to ENFORCE its ideal on the citizens. I may be wrong in that, but it seems like we are legislating ourselves into a Big Brother society, and that bothers me.
Peace
Jim Elliott <><