Saturated Fats Produce More Stomach Flab

You literally are what you eat, at least when it comes to the amount of stomach fat, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.

The researchers studied the food diaries of a group of middle-age adults, and they found that the more saturated fats such as butter and lard the group ate, the higher the amount of visceral fat surrounding their internal organs. By contrast, a diet of more polyunsaturated fats like vegetable oils produced less stomach fat.

The accumulation of fat around the waist, called visceral fat, is "a powerful risk factor for diabetes and for cardiovascular diseases like heart disease and peripheral arterial disease -- conditions related to cholesterol-laden plaque buildup in the arteries," said Kerry Stewart, study researcher and director of clinical exercise physiology.

In the study, which was presented this week at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology, researchers asked 84 adults ages 55 to 75 to record their food intake for a three-day period. They analyzed the participants' diets and measured visceral fat using magnetic resonance imaging and other techniques.

Researchers found that the strongest indicator of visceral fat was waist circumference.

"In addition to maintaining a trim waistline, a diet low in saturated fat and high in polyunsaturated fat, such as the Mediterranean diet, may help reduce visceral fat," Stewart said.

Men typically have more visceral fat while women have more subcutaneous fat, researchers said.