AARP Eye Center
1 in 3 men too fat to see their you know what
By Candy Sagon, November 9, 2012 07:53 AM
Men, when you take off your clothes and look down, can you see your, um, manhood?
If you can't, you're too fat.
That's the crude but effective test a British health-advocacy group says can let men know they have too much dangerous belly fat.
The campaign is dubbed The Big Check and is based on the group's survey of 1,000 British men ages 35 through 60 that found that one in three couldn't see their genitals because the view was blocked by their big, protuberant gut. For men between 51 and 60, it was a staggering 44 percent. (Presumably, they controlled for poor vision, as a health blogger on TheAtlantic.com noted.)
A rotund beer gut makes men more likely to develop a number of serious diseases, including diabetes, colon cancer and heart disease, NBCNews.com reported.
Johan du Plessis, M.D., the online doctor for the British group We Love Our Health (WeLoveOurHealth.co.uk), which commissioned the survey, said men are notorious for ignoring matters of their health. He urged them to "wake up and see the life-threatening risks of being overweight."
"An obese man who cannot see his penis is five times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, three times more likely to develop cancer of the colon and more than two and a half times more likely to develop high blood pressure - a major risk factor for stroke and heart disease," he said.
In other health news:
Maker of 7UP soda sued for antioxidant claim. Reuters reports that Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc., the maker of 7UP, was sued on Thursday for allegedly misleading consumers with packaging for some varieties of drinks, including 7UP Cherry, that suggests they contain antioxidants from added fruit, even though the drinks contain only added vitamin E.
Photo: The Puzzler via flickr