-
Asked by to sakshisharda on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
Question: i see all the stars from holly wood and they are sooo slim! i have heard they don't eat and they starve them selves so they don't gain weight! but then i see children in africa that have no food and they have swallon bellys, so why is it that the kids in afraica have fat, swollen bodys?
-
Sakshi Sharda answered on 17 Jun 2014:
Hi @jessstephenson1, that is a very very interesting question 🙂 Well, when Hollywood stars look slim they are not eating and starving themselves which is obviously on purpose.
Now there are racial differences in the way our bodies are made. Simplistically there are 2 components of the body – muscle/bone and fat. So for example, Africans, Indians, Chinese are evolved to have more fat compared to populations of European countries like the UK who have more muscle. Greater amounts of fat in africans and Indians has evolved because they live in places where for generations and generations there has been malnutrition and little food to eat so having greater fat compared to muscle helps to provide more energy when there is not food. This is like having a depot of energy stored for future use. So when we see African children with swollen bellies, it’s actually the fat that we see on their bellies! If you notice carefully these children have very thin hands and legs showing that they have very little muscle but more belly fat. We call these type of children thin-fat, because they are thin having less muscle and they look so weak but more fat when compared to an average baby from the UK.
Now, you may ask why is the fat accumulated only in the belly, why not somewhere else? Well, belly fat is very easy to utilise and convert to energy when compared to fat in other places such as the legs etc. This makes the fat more usable as it can be converted quickly when there is not food to eat. Also in places such as Africa children are infected with many diseases and to fight off these again the body needs energy. Enter belly fat!
This way our bodies are made differently depending on our environment and help us to adapt 🙂
-
Comments
jessstephenson1 commented on :
thank you for your time i understand now!
sakshisharda commented on :
You’re welcome 🙂
jessstephenson1 commented on :
kl ki yhnuju78j9
Naomi commented on :
Hollywood stars have become obsessed with appearance and being slim but many are TOO thin which must take a lot of exercise and silly, probably unhealthy diets!
When you see photos of starving children in Africa with swollen bodies, it can be a sign of malnutrition and not having enough protein. This causes an osmotic imbalance where water is kept in the stomach instead of in the blood steam, making their bellies look large but the rest of the body severely malnourished.