Health Gem

If you do one thing this week . . . try to keep your fat moving

We all need some fat in our bodies – for fuel, warmth and biochemical processes. But what happens when fat stores build up in the cells of muscle tissue?

The fats that hang around might ultimately spell trouble for the cells they are in: they can start to block the cell’s sensitivity to the hormone insulin, which is a step on the road to diabetes, explains Dr Donal O’Gorman, director of the Centre for Preventive Medicine at Dublin City University.

He describes the long-observed “athletes’ paradox”, where athletes and people with type 2 diabetes can have similar amounts of fat within the cells of skeletal muscles that we use to move, yet athletes generally don’t become resistant to insulin.

The key here is turnover, he notes – athletes become efficient at using the fats and replenishing them through diet, so the problems of fat accumulation in muscle don’t get to kick in.