The Shape of Thing to Come.

Why thin is always in

Fat matters, but not to your shape. 

For a long time, I have read that belly fat is worse than fat that collects somewhere else, usually around the waist thighs and buttocks.  The people with fat bellies were labeled as apple shaped. The people who got it around the thighs and buttocks were labeled as pear shaped. Being apple shaped was worse than being pear shaped, the idea being that the fat crammed in and around the vital organs was more likely to cause insulin resistance, which would lead to type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

I was apple shaped.

Now, from an article in Science Daily on two related studies by the University of Washington Medical School in St. Louis and Nutrition Support Service at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, shape, or where the body puts the fat, is a poor predictor of heart disease. 

The real predictor is too much fat stored in the liver, called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. The fat in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease comes from ingesting, and being, fat.  Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease affects metabolism by putting to much fatty acid into the blood stream, which leads to poor glucose and fat metabolism by muscles and organs, which leads to type 2 diabetes, low levels of HDL and high levels of triglycerides and that leads to heart disease.

We are getting fatter.  We eat too much fat.  The numbers simply mean we are more likely to get nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

People can be fat, in the belly or elsewhere, but if free from fatty liver disease, they will metabolize more or less normally and not get heart disease.  I infer from the article that the odds for a fat person is to not be free of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.  The key is a fat free liver, and that is the good news.  Lose some weight, consume less fat, even by just a bit, and the problem begins to decline. This seem to go back to support for a low fat diet approach.

Lose the fat and lose the problem as I have always said.

The numbers shape up for me today as:

• Fasting blood glucose:  101mg/dl*.  Very, very good. 
• Weight:  189 lbs.  Well, I am consistent. 
• Exercise:  45 minute bike ride in very humid weather.  Loved the sweat. 
• Mood:  7.5.  Good glucose level offset by crappy mood at work. 

 Menu for today:

•  Breakfast:  Banana, Texas Ruby Red grapefruit, oatmeal with craisins.
• Lunch:  Red beans and rice
• Dinner:  Stuff and stuff, what we call eating leftovers that are taking over the fridge. 
• Snacks:  Too much of some stuff  called Pub Mix from Utz pretzels.  Probably too high in fat and empty carbs.

* I hit that number this morning and the jingle from the Chesterfield's 101 Cigarettes popped into my head and pretty much stayed there all day long.  It was a catchy tune.  Now I feel old.