'Look Under the Hood: All Fat Is Not Created Equally
Fat comes in different flavors. Ever go to a dietitian who used those scary-looking calipers to measure body fat? She was measuring subcutaneous fat, found below your skin’s surface. You can pinch subcutaneous fat. It provides padding for your butt and soles of your feet. In the fat echelon, it’s not so bad.
Subcutaneous fat has an evil — even lethal — stepsister called abdominal or visceral fat. Calipers can’t measure this type of fat, which surrounds your organs and stubbornly refuses to vacate your midsection even after you’ve served an eviction notice.
Visceral fat doesn’t just like to hang out. It also likes to create trouble, releasing signaling proteins called adipokines. Among their havoc, adipokines spike blood pressure, decrease muscle quality, and zap insulin sensitivity, setting the stage for insulin resistance and eventually diabetes and cardiovascular disease.'
Oh, it gets worse. Visceral fat also increases your risk for dementia. A study with middle-aged adults in the Annals of Neurology found visceral fat (especially belly fat) could shrink your brain. Not cool.
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