I don’t usually read WebMD because it’s not about health insurance plans, self-funded or otherwise. I do subscribe to it because I’m interested in health, but it’s kinda housewife-oriented instead of benefits-manager-CFO-oriented. But an article on belly fat caught my eye.
Maybe it’s because the title, “Belly Fat: Which Foods Are the Worst?” stirred my sense of guilt over my larger-than-desired waistline, or maybe it’s because more and more of my clients are self-funding their group health insurance in one form or another and belly fat is costing them claims dollars.
Only with a self funded health plan coupled with an aggressive wellness program can you hope to actually reduce your health care costs (as opposed to simply finding new ways to push them off on your employees). So I figured the belly fat article might be of interest to both me and to your employees.
And dang, it was pretty good. I found that I had some misconceptions about belly fat, and I’m in the health business, sorta. So I figured that you and your employees might benefit from the knowledge imparted by the WebMD piece. So here’s a summary of what they told us:
- Belly fat is indeed more dangerous than that around butt and thighs. Belly fat is associated with such serious health problems as heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
- Do you figure that fatty foods are the worst source of belly fat? Well, not necessarily. Fatty foods will help you gain weight, so will too many carbs. There is no single cause of belly fat.
- Genetics, diet, age, and lifestyle can all play a role in where the fat accumulates. So if you change your dietary habits, read labels, reduce saturated fats, increase the amount of fruits and veggies you eat, and control and reduce your portions, you’ll help attack the problem.
- Alcohol worsens the problem via forcing the liver to burn alcohol instead of calories, plus alcohol changes your chemistry in a way that makes you more hungry.
- Trans fats from things like hydrogenated oils, cookies, chips and snack foods pack it on around the middle and actually move fat from other parts of the body to the waistline.
- Green tea, blueberries and soy all help reduce belly fat, particularly when combined with exercise.
- Fast foods kill you three ways. 1) the portions tend to be huge, 2) they’re calorically dense, and are addictive in nature.
- Diet soft drinks are on the razor’s edge so far as weight gain in general. Yeah, they’re lower in calories, but other studies have shown that they lead to weight gain, probably because drinkers use their low calories as an excuse to eat more of other stuff.
- Although brown rice and other high fiber foods often taste like it’s made from the floor sweepings in the basement, in fact high fiber foods fill you up and are of lower caloric density than refined foods, and they can lead to belly fat loss.
- Men are more susceptible to belly fat than women, at least until hormonal changes that occur around age 40, after which the tendency for fat to settle around the stomach is about equal in the sexes.
- Belly fat is no harder to lose than any other fat; however, targeted exercises like situps and such don’t in any way affect the loss of fat in the region being exercised.
- Belly fat is implicated in osteoporosis, dementia and heart disease. So unless you want to be a sore, forgetful invalid, pay attention to your diet and lose that belly fat.
What does this have to do with self funding? Simple, overweight individuals are adding to your health care costs by increasing their risk from and likelihood of hearth disease, dementia, osteoporosis, diabetes and stroke.
In short, folks who have belly fat aren’t doing themselves any favors and they sure as heck aren’t doing your company any. But it’s reversible — not easily, but reversible. Get that wellness program kicked off and lower your health costs.
