It has recently been reported that if you’re a pear-shaped woman, meaning you carry weight in your thighs rather that in your abdomen, your heart wellness is at risk. Reporters are claiming that this one study overturns the ‘myth’ that it’s better for your wellbeing to be a pear than an apple, but is it really as simplistic as that? Let’s look at the study in question.
The study was carried out by researchers from the Laboratory of Atherosclerosis and Metabolic Research at the University of California, Davis and other academic institutions in Texas and Tennessee, and published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and peer-reviewed medical journal Metabolism. The team look at two groups of patients; one made up of 45 participants with metabolic syndrome, and the other was a control group of 30 individuals with two or fewer features of metabolic syndrome.
The researchers took samples of blood and subcutaneous fat cells and fluid from the gluteal or buttock region. They were not trying to evaluate body shapes, but rather to describe the levels of specialised proteins called adipokines, which control your fat cell development and breakdown. From this evaluation, the researchers could identify those who were more at risk of diabetes and heart disease, and those who were less at risk of developing these conditions. Though they found that people with higher levels of fat in their buttocks (gluteal fat) were more likely to be in the first group, they did not take fat samples from anywhere other than around the bottom, so it’s impossible to overturn the pear-shape ‘myth’.
The ‘myth’ itself has been slightly skewed by the papers too. It has never been affirmed that having a pear-shaped body protects you against heart disease, but rather it is less likely to put you at risk of heart disease than people who are apple-shaped, and the risk is still there. Nonetheless, as this study only showed a link between gluteal fat and heart disease, it is too soon to say whether the ‘myth’ has been debunked anyway, and developing healthier habits and losing weight, no matter where it is distributed on your body, is still the best way to reduce your risk of developing these conditions.
Comments are closed.