Dealing with Diabetes
The Trouble with Fat

Dr. Ellen Andrews

You've seen what fat looks like when you cut up chickens. Human fat looks just like that. It's easy to accumulate and hard to lose. For years scientists thought that fat was just there, not a good thing, but not actively interfering in every day metabolism. But fat has been up to mischief all this time. Fat is like a huge toxic waste dump. Harmful chemicals seep out from fat cells and interfere with other parts of our body.

Fat cells make chemicals that actually contribute to the development of diabetes and can worsen it once it develops. They interfere with the production of insulin in the p a n c r e a s . Meanwhile out in the muscles, where insulin normally helps sugar to be used, other c h e m i c a l s from fat interfere with that. Fat makes chemicals similar to cortisone, too. Cortisone causes sugar to go up. If a diabetic takes cortisone shots or pills, the glucose levels often worsen. But here the person's own fat cells are making the cortisone. We don't know how to stop this from happening.

It's not a happy thought, that fat makes diabetes worse. So far we haven't been able to take advantage of this new knowledge, but scientists are working on ways to block these chemicals from doing their harm. They may some day be able to block the fat cells from making such chemicals. That will take some time though. At least this makes more sense now. We understand things we never did before, like why getting fat actually contributes to getting diabetes. And why losing weight helps control diabetes. There is more urgency now about preventing kids and young people from getting fat.

Media celebrities who are heavy try to say that fat is beautiful and we should accept it as normal. It can be beautiful, but it is unhealthy and it is

not normal. We really should not ignore fatness in kids. We don't look the other way while our kids smoke or drink or engage in unsafe pract i c e s , b e c a u s e there will be serious consequences for them. Letting our kids get fat and stay fat is not responsible p a r e n t i n g either.

Fat is bad for both them and us. As adults, we need to create home environments in which we stay thin, eat sensibly, and exercise just as routinely as we bathe. We expect and teach our kids to do likewise. No one wants to be sick and disabled. But getting fat and staying fat is putting us all at risk for health problems, of which diabetes is only one. There are joint problems, heart disease, high blood pressure, even some types of cancer. We're almost getting used to everyone's being fat lately. But, meanwhile the fat is not just "there." It's doing harm and we can do something about that. Save the children takes on a new meaning now.

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