Is that big stomach a health bomb waiting to go off? Check out this NY Times article. Many people have a beer belly or that huge protruding gut than hangs over the waistline. Aside from being overweight, having all the weight in the front can be quite unhealthy, raising the likelihood of heart disease or even an early death. Having all that extra weight is not good for you, and can cause back pain and also problems in the knees and hips. Too much weight in front will also displace the organs and can also cause breathing problems as well as fat deposits in between the organs which is unhealthy for any of us. Check out what this recent study suggests about that beer gut. Beware the Beer Belly By Nicholas Bakalar A beer belly is a dangerous thing. A new analysis of data from a large national study has found that carrying fat around the middle of the body greatly raises the risk for heart disease and death, even for those of normal weight. Doctors usually determine obesity by body mass index, or B.M.I. — calculated from height and weight — but the calculation does not distinguish between fat and lean muscle weight. Measuring waist-to-hip ratio presents a different, and possibly more accurate, picture because it accounts for central obesity, or visceral fat, the fat stored around the internal organs. Read more here