The female booty once again is celibrated!

I must be very, very, very healthy if I follow the “a big butt is healthier than a fat gut” article which stated that a pear shaped female figure is heathier;  there is a great deal of research that concludes excess weight around a female’s waist rather than her hips can be attributed to increased incidences of cardiovascular disease (Gambacciani et al., 1997 & Brannon and Feist, 2004). So that is great!  My booty should be celebrated! However...I still need to lose a little weight. Additionally my multicultural friends have different takes on their weight loss plans.

There are cultural differences regarding fat distribution in the body and it seems to vary based upon whether or not someone has immigrated to another culture, what their original ethnicity is, and what the lifestyle is of any particular culture. For example, the body mass index of Japanese men living in Japan is significantly lower than that of Japanese men living in Hawaii or California, a study from Israel concluded that ethnic differences in hypertension or weight related disorders remained the same regardless of whether or not someone immigrated to a different country, and an additional study indicated that Germans and Danish people had significant differences in obesity rates possible because of the increased consumption rates of alcohol and smoking in the German population (Lahmann, Lissner, Gullberg, & Berglund, 2000). Another study, confirming cultural differences regarding body fat, found that Maori and Pacific Islanders had higher body mass index in both men and women versus European men and women (Metcalf, Scragg, Willoughby, Finau, & Tipene-Leach, 2000). So, although there is a lot of variation in the research I would conclude that there are cultural differences in fat distribution.

Brannon, L. & Feist, J. (2004). Health psychology: An introduction to behavior and health (5th Ed.). CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Gambacciani, M., Ciaponi, B., Cappagli, L., Piaggesi, L., de Simone, L., Orlandi, R., & Genazzani, A. R. (1997). Body weight, body fat distribution, and hormonal replacement therapy in early postmenopausal women. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 82(2).

Lahmann, P. H., Lissner, L., Gullberg, B., & Berglund, B . (2000). Differences in body fat and central adiposity between swedes and european immigrants: The malmö diet and cancer study. The North American Association for the Study of Obesity, 8, 620-631.

Metcalf, P. A., Scragg, R. K., Willoughby, P., Finau, S., & Tipene-Leach, D. (2000). Ethnic differences in perceptions of body size in middle-aged european, maori and pacific people living in new Zealand. International Journal of Obesity, 24(5), 593-599.