Many Americans don't recognize common heart disease risk factor, survey says

• Six out of 10 Americans do not recognize excess abdominal fat as a major cause of heart disease and diabetes, according to a new survey released Monday.
• The Shape of the Nations Report, sponsored by the World Heart Federation, quizzed doctors and patients in the United States and 26 other countries to see how many were aware that abdominal fat is a big risk factor for heart disease.
• "This report confirms what we have suspected," said Dr. Stephen Daniels, a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, and a spokesman for the American Heart Association.
• Despite the importance of abdominal fat as a risk factor, 62 percent of the doctors surveyed said they do not measure their patients' waistlines to check for overweight and obesity.
• "Many doctors aren't following through by measuring waist circumference," Daniels said.
• Furthermore, 58 percent of the doctors overestimated the waist circumference at which female patients are considered at risk for heart disease and diabetes, and 20 percent didn't know.
• A waistline of more than 35 inches for women and more than 40 inches for men is considered a high risk for heart disease and diabetes, according to the American Heart Association.
• Seventy-one percent of women said that their doctor never told them that excess weight, including high-risk abdominal fat, boosted their risk for heart disease.
• We have more eating opportunities and those opportunities have higher calorie-density food.
• It really becomes a day-to-day approach to changing behaviors to eating and physical activity.
• Another expert advised that the overweight see a dietitian if they need help losing weight.
• "If physicians would actually measure people's abdomens, that would make it a more concrete notion for people to understand," said Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Medical Center.
• "The distribution of body fat is important in determining health effects.