Plenty of research points to the health dangers of excess belly – or abdominal – fat, from preventing type 2 diabetes, to high blood pressure and more. Last week, a study published in the journal Neurology conducted by Kaiser Permanente’s research arm, linked excess belly fat to a high risk of dementia. Researchers found that the more belly fat participants were toting around, the greater their risk for dementia.

The facts and figures about the financial costs of diabetes as well as the numbers of children and adults at risk of developing type 2 diabetes due to genetics, but more so being overweight, are staggering…and “sobering” as noted by Drs Judith Fradkin and Griffin Rodgers, from the diabetes division of the National Institutes of Health, in their Diabetes Care editorial The Economic Imperative to Conquer Diabetes (extract).