Some girls tend to feel frustrated if they havea pear-shaped body， with hips that are wider thanthe bust and shoulders. While pear-shaped peo-ple’s waists are typically smaller， they may havemore fat on their hips and legs. So， many pear-shaped girls try to hide their hips and legs underlarge dresses and pants.

However， a recent study suggested that pear-shaped people are the ones who won the geneticlottery .

A study published by the US National Libraryof Medicine found that the waist- to- hip ratioshows the strongest and most consistent associa-tion with mortality . Traditionally， the body massindex has been considered the best indicator ofhealth. However， this study challenges this belief.

It surveyed nearly 40，000 people and found that，regardless of BMI， WHR is positively correlatedwith all-cause mortality （all of the deaths that oc-cur in a population， no matter the cause）. The larg-er the WHR， the higher the all- cause mortalityrate will be. Instead of focusing on how much fata person has， scientists suggest people should fo-cus more on how fat is distributed in a person’sbody.

WHR， as its name suggests， compares yourwaist measurement to your hip measurement. A larger waistline means more central fat， whichcould indicate more visceral fat ， also known astoxic fat. Harvard Medical School states that morevisceral fat increases the risk of illnesses includ-ing diabetes ， heart diseases and asthma . That’swhy people with a pearshaped body tend to behealthier than others. According to the WorldHealth Organization， a healthy WHR is less than0.85 for women and less than 0.9 for men.

It is impossible to specifically target waist fatwhen people try to lose weight. But losing overallfat will make the waist smaller. Researchers fromJohns Hopkins University suggested we eat lesscarbohydrates and more food higher in fiber andprotein. Moreover， doing strength training helpsbuild more muscle， which makes you burn morecalories even when you’re resting.

有些女孩如果擁有梨形身材，即臀部比胸圍和肩膀?qū)?，往往?huì)感到沮喪。雖然梨形身材的人的腰部通常較細(xì)，但他們的臀部和腿部可能有更多的脂肪。所以，很多梨形身材的女孩都試圖把自己的臀部和腿部隱藏在肥大的衣服和褲子下。

然而，最近的一項(xiàng)研究表明，梨形身材的人是中了基因彩票的人。

美國(guó)國(guó)立醫(yī)學(xué)圖書(shū)館發(fā)表的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，腰臀比（WHR）與死亡率的關(guān)聯(lián)性最強(qiáng)且最一致。傳統(tǒng)上，體重指數(shù)（BMI）被認(rèn)為是衡量健康的最佳指標(biāo)。

然而，這項(xiàng)研究挑戰(zhàn)了這一定論。它調(diào)查了近40，000人，發(fā)現(xiàn)無(wú)論BMI如何，腰臀比與全因死亡率（人群中發(fā)生的所有死亡，無(wú)論是何原因）呈正相關(guān)。腰臀比越大，全因死亡率越高?？茖W(xué)家建議人們不應(yīng)該關(guān)注一個(gè)人有多少脂肪，而應(yīng)該更多地關(guān)注脂肪在人體內(nèi)的分布情況。

腰臀比，顧名思義，是將一個(gè)人的腰圍測(cè)量值與臀圍測(cè)量值相比較。腰圍越大意味著中央脂肪越多，這可能代表內(nèi)臟脂肪（又稱(chēng)有毒脂肪）更多。哈佛醫(yī)學(xué)院指出，更多的內(nèi)臟脂肪會(huì)增加患糖尿病、心臟病和哮喘等疾病的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。這就是為什么梨形身材的人往往比其他人更健康。根據(jù)世界衛(wèi)生組織的數(shù)據(jù)，女性腰臀比低于0.85，男性腰臀比低于0.9是健康的。

當(dāng)人們?cè)噲D減肥時(shí)，不可能只減腰部脂肪。但減去整體脂肪會(huì)使腰圍變小。

約翰霍普金斯大學(xué)的研究人員建議我們少吃碳水化合物，多吃富含纖維和蛋白質(zhì)的食物。此外，進(jìn)行力量訓(xùn)練有助于增肌，讓人們即使在休息時(shí)也能燃燒更多卡路里。

選自《21世紀(jì)英文報(bào)》