Beer and belly

The euphemism used to be “public opinion” but now it is “beer belly”, “love handle” (for women), “muffin top”, “spare tyre”, “beer gut”… name it. The paunch has always been there. In some cultures, it is a symbol of good living. In others it is a manifestation of conspicuous consumption.

Whatever you call it, abdominal obesity is essentially accumulation of fat around the belly.

The protrusion is caused by deposition of fat around the abdomen or mid-section of the body. The fat comes from excess calories. The calorie is the unit used for measuring the energy derived from food.

The beer belly happens because of either eating excess food or eating foods high in calories such as fatty foods, refined carbohydrates, sugary beverages, and beer.

Fat derived from excess calories is deposited either below the skin (subcutaneous fat) and/or around the internal organs (visceral fat).

Visceral fat is the one that typically manifests itself as beer belly. Below are frequently asked questions about this gaining of girth.

Why is abdominal obesity more common in men than women?

Unlike women who store their flab in their arms, thighs, and sometimes buttocks, men prefer their blubber in their bellies. In the case of women, the fat in the “right” places bestows on them the curves that distinguish them from men, besides making them more attractive to men, which attraction ultimately has a role in the propagation of the human species.

Why is beer then routinely blamed for protruding bellies?

A key constituent in beer is alcohol, which is very high in calories. A gramme of alcohol contains approximately seven calories. Alcohol ranks second to fat in the amount of calories when compared to other macronutrients. A gramme of fat contains nine calories, while a gramme of carbohydrates contains four calories. In proteins, a gramme packs four calories.

Five hundred millilitres of beer with an alcohol percentage of 5 contains approximately 170 calories. Five beer bottles of 500ml gives a total of 850 calories. These calories are only derived from alcohol and do not include those from sugar in beer.

Combining beer calories with those from food, it is easy to exceed the daily recommended calorie intake of 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.

Often, drinking beer leads to heightened appetite. In addition to eating large portions of food, foods washed down with alcohol are in most cases high in fat. Such foods include nyama choma, sausages, fried chicken and chips — the last being a favourite of Kenyan girls.

Beer can also lead to a knock-on effect by causing a drop in blood sugar levels, which leads to lethargy. Lethargy leads to reduced activity, which implies that less calories are burned. The burning of less calories increases the likelihood of accumulation of fat, hence the pot belly.

How do I measure my belly and what are the safe readings?

The most accurate method to measure the amount of fat in the body is either by use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT). These methods are expensive and require qualified personnel and sophisticated equipment.

A quick and simpler method is to measure the waist line using a tape measure. This is done by measuring the waist line at the navel (in inches).

According to experts, a waist line exceeding 35 inches (35cm) for women and 40 inches (101cm) for men should trigger alarm bells. Such large waist line circumferences are clear indications of abdomen obesity and are associated with an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other illnesses.

Another useful measure is the waist-to-hip ratio. This ratio is obtained by dividing the waist size (inches) by hip size (in inches) at their widest point. A waist to hip ratio above 0.95 inches for men and 0.85 inches for women indicates signs of abdomen obesity.

Why is abdominal fat harmful?

The main scientific explanation of the dangers of visceral fat relies on what is called lipotoxicity (toxic effect of fat on the organs). When fat accumulates in organs such as pancreas, heart, and liver, which are not naturally meant to store fat, they malfunction.

The result of malfunctioning organs is impaired regulation of insulin, blood sugar, and cholesterol, as well as abnormal heart functioning.

The other explanation is that visceral fat causes the body’s stress response mechanisms to overreact, which raises the blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and can lead to cardiac risk.

What about age?

Reduced calorie needs, reduced physical activity, wasting of bones, and decline of hormonal level in the body are responsible for gaining weight with age.

As the hormone levels decline in men and women with age, they’re more likely to store fat around the middle section of the body.

This is particularly true with women after the age of 40 years due to changes in hormone levels. However, menopausal women who take hormone replacement supplements do not experience as much of a shift toward deposition of fat in the belly compared to women who do not.

Marriage too?

A study published in the Journal of Obesity Research in 2002 revealed that men gain a significant amount of weight after marriage. Not surprisingly, they lose some weight after divorce.

In 2010 Deepak and Lekha from Banaras Hindu University in India published an interesting article that exposed what is to blame for abdominal obesity in married men.

Deepak and his colleague narrowed this down to several factors, including consuming large meals, feeling secure as a couple, hormones, and psychological factors.

Stress an appetiser

Persistent social, work, family, and financial strains create stress. About 40 per cent of those who experience stress resort to increased calorie intake, while 40 per cent reduce their calorie intake. The other 20 per cent normally do not change their eating habits during stressful situation.

Stress triggers a response network in the brain that induces secretion of hormones, increasing the desire for food and secretion of insulin. This promotes food intake and obesity.

Pleasurable feeding (mainly of sweet and/or fatty foods and beer) then suppresses activity in the stress–response network, temporarily abating the effects of stress.

This can lead to reinforcing a habit of eating high calorie foods and drinking beer as a quick remedy to stress. Such objectionable stress countering eating habits can lead to abdominal obesity.

Is beer really the cause?

Astonishingly, there are teetotalers with abdominal obesity and skinny binge drinkers. This reality cannot be ignored.

Scientific studies to determine whether beer is a fattener or not have always yielded mixed results, but the consensus is that beer drinking leads to weight gain, without pin pointing that beer is the sole cause of swelling waist lines.

A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2003 of 8,000 British men drawn from 24 towns showed that drinkers gained weight more than non-drinkers. But this did not categorically associate it to beer.

In the same year, 1,000 men and women beer imbibers in the Czech Republic were surveyed for weight gain. The Czech Republic is a good place to study the effects of beer because it is the drink of choice for both men and women. It is consumed with meals. The results were consistent with literature that beer drinkers gain weight but did not specifically link it to abdominal obesity.

More recently, in 2009, an amazing 20,000 participants, among them 8,000 male beer drinkers from Germany, were studied to establish if there was any correlation between beer and girth.

The results indicated that there is such a relation. However, this association was driven by general body weight increase. The study could not confirm the hypothesis of a site-specific effect of beer on waist circumference.

Wealth

An increase in wealth is accompanied by a sedentary lifestyle and intake of high calorie foods, which are key contributors to abdominal obesity.

— Dr Joshua Arimi is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University College of Dublin, Ireland.