Body&Soul
First of all..
"You may look slim,but new research shows you could be harbouring dangerous fat hidden deep inside your body.So are you a TOFI(thin on the outside,fat inside)?By Edna St Vincent Millay"-Are you a SECRET FATTY?
Some lucky people seem to eat what they like,hardly exercise abd still stay slim.Rather than calorie counting or pouding the treamill,it seems they can stuff their faces without any effect on their waistlines-and look great on it.
But now,new research reveals they may not be quite as healthy,or lucky, as they seem.Using an astonishing new body scanning technique,medical reseacrhers have shown apparently"slim" people can be carrying so much hidden fat around their vital organs that they are increased risk of obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.
Indeed,they may be more at risk than people twice their size,who look fatter but carry their excess weight on the outside of the body,for example on their hips and thighs.Scientists have even invented a new acronym for this phenomenon: TOFI-Thin on the Outside, Fat on the Inside.
Appearances can be deceptive, says Professor Jimmy Bell, head of molecular imaging group at the Medical Research Council's Centre at Imperial College, where the scanning technique is being developed."Simply being a normal body weight doesn't mean you're not storing dangerous fat stores on the inside," he says."An MRI(magnetic resonance imaging) scanner reveals that people who would be considered slim can have large quantities of fat within them."
Internal fat is thought to be a health risk because it tends to deposit around vital organs, such as kidneys and liver, and streaks the muscles.It may even get into the bloodstream and cause fatty deposits along artery walls, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. It's thought hidden fat streaked through the body may be the type that sends out chemical signals which can lead to obesity-related diseases, such as insulin resistance.Doctors estimate more than 30,000 people die each year as a result of obesity-related diseases, and more than a quarter of people in Britain are considered clinically obese using the BMI measurement. But many more of us may be obese on the inside.
"Fat is extremely complex and isn't simple a storage area excess calories you've eaten," explains Dr Beckie Lang from the Obesity Resource Information Centre. "It secretes compounds, such as hormones, that can have effects on other parts of the body and lead to chronic ill health. And fat stored in different parts of the body can have different risks. We are just beginning to understand the role of fat."
We already know, for example, that fat stored around the waist area on so-called "apple shapes", increases the risk of heart disease and type-2 diabetes, compared to fat stored by "pear shapes", around the hips and bottom. "It may be that internal fat around your organs may be a high risk predictor for conditions like cardiovascular disease too," says Lang.
So what causes this internal fat, and who is most risk?
"If you do less than two hours' aerobic exercise a week, then you may have too much internal fat. If you sit at a desk all day, for example, and you're barely moving, then although you look slim, you're at risk."
At highest risk, however, is anybody who yo-yo diets to keep their weight down. Crash diets send your body into starvation mode-it starts burning lean tissue for energy, leaving you with higher and more dangerous ratio of internal fat.
Any kind of dieting without exercising can mean you're storing fat in the wrong places, such as around the liver, gut, kidneys, hearts, and pancreas. Men who have slim build but do little exercise are also at particurlarly high risk, because any fat is more likely to be deposited internally; further studies will look into why this happens.
"We think it's caused by a sedentary lifestyle.
"If you do less than two hours' aerobic exercise a week,
you may have too much internal fat."
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