Some parents actually raise their children to believe that it’s whats on the inside that really counts, not the outside. That doesn’t stick with too many people and then we see people killing themselves to have an ideal outside body. Well now some doctors are saying that the fat that surrounds internal vital organs such as the liver or heart could be just as dangerous as the fat that everyone is always obsessing about.
“Being thin doesn’t automatically mean you’re not fat,” said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create “fat maps” showing where people store fat.
According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim. “The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined,” said Bell, whose research is funded by Britain’s Medical Research Council.
The doctors are worried that without a better definition of “fat” that people who appear to be thin may automatically assume that they’re also healthy. This also means that the diseases that over weight people are at risk of contracting, such as diabetes, are just as much a risk to people who may have this internal fat. In an experiment 45% people with “normal” BMIs, 20 - 25, had an excessive level of internal fat. The percentage grew to 60% with men alone.
Relating the news to what Bell calls “TOFIs” — people who are “thin outside, fat inside” — is rarely uneventful. “The thinner people are, the bigger the surprise,” he said, adding the researchers even found TOFIs among people who are professional models.According to Bell, people who are fat on the inside are essentially on the threshold of being obese. They eat too many fatty, sugary foods — and exercise too little to work it off — but they are not eating enough to actually be fat. Scientists believe we naturally accumulate fat around the belly first, but at some point, the body may start storing it elsewhere.
That’s scary - what does the regular American Diet consist of? Fatty and sugary foods. Now you have something like 30% of the population being obese, and even higher number being “over weight” and now 60% of the men who were thought to be “healthy” are actually internally obese.
The impacts of this internal fat aren’t fully known but it is thought that they will disrupt regular body communications. The fat could send mistaken chemical signals to organs such as the liver and pancreas leading to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes or heart disease.
Experts have long known that fat, active people can be healthier than their skinny, inactive counterparts. “Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit,” said Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina.
For example, despite their ripples of fat, super-sized Sumo wrestlers probably have a better metabolic profile than some of their slim, sedentary spectators, Bell said. That’s because the wrestlers’ fat is primarily stored under the skin, not streaking throughout their vital organs and muscles.
The article does say that the BMI is an accurate indicator of body and personal health, but I think the previous two paragraphs really show how misleading the BMI can be. A person with a BMI of 32 may be able to run a track 3 times as faster than a person with a BMI of 23. This sort of research really promotes that unhealthy dieting and eating crappy food just because you have “a high metabolism” isn’t what people should be doing.
Young women especially should know that just because they look good on the outside doesn’t mean they’re saving their insides. Everything on the inside of the body - and I don’t mean your wonderful personality, I mean your vital organs - are so much more important and in need of your attention then of outside body.
(cross posted at appletree)
