I feel pretty sure that many that trouble to read what I contribute by way of letters to the local media regarding health tips will be pretty fed-up with my constant advice about avoiding Non-contributable Diseases (NCD's) which lead to serious illnesses that include cancer, heart attacks, stroke, liver conditions and especially diabetes.
I do so for genuine reasons over concerns over the health of Solomon Islanders and it may be of interest to know that as early as 1998 when in office in Honiara, members of the Solomon Islands police then stationed at Rove carried out a fitness run each morning in an effort to promote regular exercise and weight loss.
If one will bear with me once again, I would like to add a few more words in the hope the advice, taken from the UK Daily Mail, today might encourage one to take the initiative to take it upon themselves to lose body fat and reduce their chances of getting the diseases associated with NCD's.
Let me say, from the onset, anyone thinking of starting a fitness regime would be advised to seek a medical opinion just to be sure they are fit enough to start exercising. This was a priority when I introduced the fitness programme for the members of the police force back in 1998.
Let me quote some advice from the newspaper I have mentioned.
State-of-the-art technology has discovered what happens to visceral fat when following an intermittent fasting diet - and it's not good news. The body responds by storing excess fat. Dr. Mark Larance, who led the investigation, said: "Visceral fat can be resistant to weight loss after long periods of dieting." His research team, based at the University of Sydney, examined fat tissues to understand their response to every-other-day fasting.
This meant that no food was consumed on alternative days in the test subjects.
During fasting, fat tissue provides energy to the rest of the body by releasing fatty acid molecules.
However, visceral fat tissue becomes resistant to this release of fatty acids during repetitive fasting.
There was also evidence that visceral fat increased its ability to store energy as fat when engaged in intermittent fasting.
Dr. Larance said: "This suggests the visceral fat can adapt to repeated fasting bouts and protect its energy store.
"This type of adaptation may be the reason why visceral fat can be resistant to weight loss after long periods of dieting."
The researchers used a mouse model for their study, which shares "similar" physiology to humans.
Dr. Larance pointed out that mice had a "much faster" metabolism, enabling them to "observe changes more rapidly than in human trials".
Future research may uncover the mechanisms by which this resistance occurs.
The research team did note that the findings may not apply to different diet regimes, such as the 5:2 diet, where people fast for two days out of seven.
In addition, the results do not reflect what happens when people undergo a calorie-restricted diet in order to lose weight.
How to lose visceral fat
Harvard Medical School encouraged people hoping to lose visceral fat to "keep moving".
Exercising is a guaranteed way to lose visceral fat and gain muscle mass instead.
Everybody is advised to engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, five days per week.
This involves movement where breathing deepens and gets your heart rate increasing.
Examples can include brisk walking, jogging, and swimming.
It's also key not to smoke, which encourages fat to be stored in the belly.
In addition, good quality sleep - up to eight hours per night - has been linked to lower visceral fat levels.
Managing stress levels will also be helpful, as cortisol (the stress hormone) has been associated with higher visceral fat deposits.
Moreover, diet is important too. As shown by the research outlined earlier, intermittent fasting is unlikely to work; it'll be better to have a consistently healthy diet.
