Fat makes us smarter than chimps
by Grace Honney
Having recently been subjected to Weight Watchers’ new ad campaign showing overweight people about town or on the beach, I started to wonder about New Zealand’s supposed obesity epidemic.
Am I alone in being frightened by the idea of developing type 2 diabetes and an increased risk of heart disease if I pack on the pounds?
But surely eating only one sushi roll a day, washed down with a seaweed and algae shake, is not going to do my body any favours either.
So what of the opinion that a little bit of fat is actually good for you? Natalie Angier, in an article from the New York Times finds out.
Put simply, if you eat more calories than you burn, then the body has to find somewhere to put the excess energy, and fat cells are perfect for this.
If we didn’t have fat cells, the body would have to find somewhere else to store fat. And the most likely candidate is the liver - which, when severely overloaded, can lead to liver failure or even death.
However, before you all go marching off to Wendy’s, the main point is that a little bit of fat is good for you.
We gain and lose weight when our fat cells expand or shrink, but they never completely disappear unless you have them removed.
If you constantly eat more calories than you burn, then your fat cells split, creating more to meet the increased demand (try to remember that handy mitosis lecture from 3rd form biology).
These fat cells don’t die, they just increase your ability to store more fat. Excellent.
So yes, while some evolutionary biologists believe that we are smarter than chimpanzees (because we are curvier), I’ll take my chances and stick with going to the gym.