Yippee!  Soon, a pill to replace your treadmill! 

Folks, did you know that squooshy thing at your midriff we cover up with oversized blouses and untucked shirts is just plain, simple old white fat.  Well, you probably did, but for you Oakland Raiders fans (hey, I’m in Denver!!), it’s scientifically called white adipose tissue (WAT) and it stores surplus energy.

Over the last several decades, we have gotten really good at storing LOTS of surplus energy.  CDC says 65% of us Americans are overweight, almost 25% of us are seriously obese.  And it appears we’ve exported this characteristic.  A Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation study published in the Lancet has revealed that 40% of the global population is overweight or obese. Yuck!  Bad stat.  Good stat for the Raiders interior offensive line, however.

I just learned that there is a different colored fat – brown.  Aren’t we all glad our squishy middles don’t show up brown?  This brown fat is called BAT,  brown adipose tissue (brilliant!). It burns energy and generates heat.

White adipose makes up most of our fat, especially as we age.  And that’s not a good thing.  Especially when it accumulates, creeps over your beltline, alters your wardrobe and makes shoe tying an aerobic experience.

Oh, did I mention that it’s also killing us slowly? More on that further down.  Keep reading.

Science to the rescue

Well, fret not.  Science once again seems to be on the trail of a quick-fix.  A no-sweat, no-effort, keep-your-Lazyboy solution.  It’s only proven out on little white furry creatures so far, but it’s looking like they may be able to develop yet another receptor blocker.  This one magically increases the conversion of WAT to BAT.

There you go – stored energy to burned energy.  Sounds simple enough. The payoff: reduction in obesity and improved sensitivity to insulin.

You can read about this research here.

You can also read about WAT vs BAT here.

Craig’s List and eBay are gonna get hammered!

I can see it now.  This magic potion hits the market and you will be able to negotiate incredible prices for used treadmills, upright bikes, ellipticals, Bowflexes, etc. on Craig’s List and eBay.  Most of these, fortunately, will have lots of life left because most of them will not have been used much in the first place.

Many basements will be creating much needed new storage space.

When this pill is announced, I’m selling my Lifetime Fitness stock and moving the money over to Lazyboy, Burger King, and Netflix.

Can we get real here?

Have I plastered enough sarcasm into this diatribe yet?

I guess I should be grateful that we have the money and the brains to be working on all these marvelous remedies for self-inflicted maladies.

But, if we honestly peer deeper into this accumulated adipose, we have to admit that most of the accumulation is due to a crappy lifestyle.  Don’t we know all that we need to know to prevent WAT accumulation without a pill – or a scalpel?   Haven’t we known it practically forever?

Well yeah!!  It’s called exercise – and sensible nutrition.

Let’s pass some legislation

No, I didn’t really mean that.  To turn to Comedy Central on the Potomac for anything promoting healthy, non-pharma lifestyle would be like expecting Kim Jong-un to start a nationwide bible-study initiative.

We can’t legislate a mindset.  And mindsets and beliefs guide our lives.  Tony Robbins has transformed millions of lives by emphasizing the importance of evaluating and questioning our beliefs.

Is it a stretch to say that a 50” male midriff or a 40” female midriff is a product of a belief or mindset?  Perhaps.  It may be a belief that “it comes with my genetics or my body-type or it’s what happens as we get older.”  But we’ve known for a long time that none of those are the real truth.  We do know that the condition is correctable in nearly every case.

I posit that the 50”/40” condition is more a product of naivete or the biggest killer on our planet – healthcare illiteracy –  mixed in with laziness, instant gratification, comfort-seeking.

Become a student of metabolic syndrome

I’m not qualified to dispense medical advice, nor is it my intent.  But what I want to share is information on what we know that is harming us.  WAT and bulging waistlines is a biggie (sorry, pun intended).  We’ve known that for a long time.

Waistline size from adipose white fat collection is killing us slowly and is one of the key components of metabolic syndrome which Mayo Clinic describes as follows:

“ – a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels — that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Having just one of these conditions doesn’t mean you have metabolic syndrome. However, any of these conditions increase your risk of serious disease. Having more than one of these might increase your risk even more.”

Enough rant!  Solution, please.

The medical literature is pretty clear on waistline size and the need for WAT reduction:

• Men: ideal waist size:  under 36 inches.  Above 40” is high risk.  Note: the measurement is at the navel. It’s not your pant size.  Pant size will typically run 2-4 inches less than your actual waist size.
• Women: ideal waist size: under 32 inches.  Above 35”is high risk. Same measurement method applies.

Getting there?  Please, don’t wait for the aforementioned pill.   Three steps will kickstart the WAT to BAT conversion:

1. Give up your Lazyboy to your golden retriever. Take the batteries out of the remote.
2. Dust off the bike/elliptical/treadmill or renew your gym membership and find 30 minutes a day for at least five days a week to get your heart rate into your exercise range (220 minus your age times .85 and .65). If you’ve been glued to your now relinquished Lazyboy for a long time, work your way up to that to avoid injury.
3. Fat begets fat so ditch the meat. OK, that’s tough in our culture but you can wean your way off.  Think this way.  If your source of protein walked or flew at some point before you ate it, some of it’s going to your belt line.  If it stood on one leg most of its life (OK – let me help you Oakland Raider fans here – plants), it’s not converting to adipose.

That’s pretty simple, don’t you think? Certainly, not very original on my part.  This mantra has been out since like forever.  But big pharma, big food, and the meat industry prefer you forget or ignore it.

At your peril!

Personally, I can’t stand to have an untucked t-shirt touch my adipose.  That’s my signal that my waistline has started to creep back up and it’s time to ditch the snack foods and get the heart rate a little higher a little longer.

At age 75 and at 5’ 11”, I’m holding steady at a 36″ waistline.  Easy?  Nope!  Fact is, WAT accumulates faster and is harder to get rid of as we age.  Put that together with gravity and you have a significant challenge to hit the healthy numbers. For me, it takes a commitment to 45 minutes of aerobic exercise six days a week supplemented with three days of aggressive strength training a week to maintain.  I marry that regimen to a “flexitarian” diet of mostly plants in which “meat is a treat” that we experience maybe once or twice a month. I confess that the one thing I won’t give up, but should, is my one early-evening micro-brew before dinner.

We know all we need to know

I’ll wrap with a repeat of a quote by Dr. David Katz, a physician at the Yale School of Medicine, and founder of an organization called the Academy of Lifestyle Medicine.  I heard him say the following in a presentation to a large group of his peers:

“We already know all that we need to know to reduce, by 80%, the five major killers in our country.  We don’t need any more fancy drugs or equipment or more Nobel Prizes.  We know all we need to know today.”

Maybe I should send that quote to the research team working on the brown-fat pill.

Nah!  Let them have their fun.

What’s your solution for converting white to brown?  Scroll down and leave your thoughts on this issue.  What are your thoughts on the state of our healthcare literacy in this country?

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