Nutrition News Roundup:

I think this topic is extremely relevant to the recession period and the struggles people are having just to make ends meet.

Though we will always be envious of the few who enjoy over 9 hours of sleep a day, this is mostly addressing those of you who are squeezing out every last hour to be at work, taking care of those nasty bills and foregoing sleep.

But snoozers; I am not done with you just yet, we’ll talk about the consequences of your sleeping patterns further down…

THREE to FIVE hours of sleep you hear? Yes, I didn’t believe it at first either until I discovered my workaholic friend.  I came across some scientific research that directly related my friend’s fat depositions to his abnormal sleeping habits. You might say, “Oh he’s getting old,” or blame it on some other factor. But this workaholic friend is only 20 and complains to me about his recent weight gain ALL THE TIME. He specifically is concerned about the fat that has developed around the stomach area.
Taking a step back from my own experiment, a study in Wake Forest University School of Medicine revealed that especially in individuals under 40, there was a clear association between averaging five hours or less of sleep a night and large increases in visceral fat.

Visceral fat is the deep, intra-abdominal fat that surrounds the organs (kidneys, liver, spine…) It contributes to that “apple” rather than “pear” shape body which is extremely dangerous and puts an individual at risk for diabetes, stroke, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and cancer.

Short sleep has become more common and is related to metabolic conditions, including increased rates of obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. The higher rates of occurrence of metabolic disease may be due to the fat deposition that the patients have developed. The  study suggests that surprisingly the associating between accumulation of visceral fat and sleeping habits were only seen in patients under 40.

But sleeping the day away won't do much to better your health either. People who got more than eight hours of sleep on average a night showed similar, though less pronounced results.

So though we are in a recession right now and putting in that extra hour at work is very important, just remember:

Value yourself before you value your pocket.

Read More: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100301091302.htm?wpisrc=nl_health