It’s Time to Give Your Fat Cells Some Love!

Today we are going to talk about fat again, and this time it will specifically be about your fat cells.

Everyone from the most lean person you know to the not-so-lean, has fat all throughout their body. Have you ever thought about why?

It is true that our fat cushions our organs, protecting them from shock.

But its job is so much more than that. Fat is an organ.

Yes, just like your liver, your kidneys or your heart, fat is a critical organ in your body. More specifically, fat is an endocrine organ. Meaning just like your glands, it produces its own hormones and signaling molecules that enter into circulation and regulate other organs (telling them what to do).

What is it regulating specifically? 

Your METABOLISM.

Most people don’t think about that. How many people do you know that look down at their own expanding belly and think, Hmmm, I think my endocrine organ is off?

An expanding belly is a sign of endocrine malfunction. Let me explain it simply - You have fat called “subcutaneous fat,” and fat called “visceral fat.” 

Subcutaneous fat is the fat that sits just under your skin. It is very individualized and is what gives you your unique shape. It can grow and shrink in response to female hormones, it can protect a mother and child during pregnancy, and can give a woman her curves.

Visceral fat is the fat located internally around your organs. It should NOT grow dramatically in a healthy human.

If it does, it’s a sign that your body is badly confused.

Confused how?

Your body is a very tightly controlled and well-designed system from birth. A system that is built using the materials you eat (either FOOD or NOT FOOD).

Humans, like animals, have systems that respond to times of plenty and to times of famine. See my previous post on the “switch.”

This is a very complicated system, so I am going to give you an easy way to remember it by defining 2 fatty acids found in our food supply: stearic acid and linoleic acid. 

Stearic acid is a type of saturated fat found in ruminants (tallow and butter, for example) and cacao butter, among other sources.

Linoleic acid is a PUFA and a main fat in nut and “vegetable” seed oils.

Stearic acid ➡️ times of plenty.

Linoleic acid ➡️ times of famine.

Stearic acid = GOOD.

Linoleic acid = BAD.

Simple, right?

KEY CONCEPT:

When you eat ruminant meat and organs, the stearic acid signals to your body that food is plenty, and to BURN FAT.

When you eat seed oils, the linoleic acid signals to your body that food is scarce, and to STORE FAT.

This is where your body gets confused. “Vegetable” seed oils are a recent man-made invention. Your ancestors had no access to these oils except when they were eating small amounts of nuts and seeds. When access to meat was scarce, the fat cells were signaled to store energy in order to allow the body to survive a famine, or in animals to prepare for hibernation. It was a good thing.

We obviously are not in a famine here in America, and have not been for over 100 years. Yet because we have put industrial seed oils in everything imaginable we have constantly, like a slow drip, signaled to our fat cells that we ARE in a famine, and to grow and grow. SINCE BIRTH (yes, there are even industrial seed oils in infant formula). This is a BAD THING.

So how does this happen, exactly?

There has been lots of research about linoleic acid (LA). Read about it here, here and here, just for starters. It is a PUFA that is concentrated in nuts and seeds that use it for energy during germination. LA itself is not completely bad, it has its place and function inside the seed and for the seed. The problem comes when it is isolated (damaged, oxidized and stripped of all nutrients) and then used in large quantities in humans.

If you want to explore the immense damaging affects that seed oils have caused, watch this video.

LA from seed oils gets incorporated into cell membranes and are easily oxidized. Many scientists believe that because of the “switch” I told you about earlier, and because LA sickens your mitochondria, that LA triggers your fat cells to store energy, which means much of the LA you eat gets stored inside your fat cells.

LA has many compounds it degrades to while inside your fat - called OXLAMS (oxidated linoleic acid metabolites). Trust me, THESE ARE BAD. They cause a raging fire of oxidative stress in your cells. One OXLAM - called 4-HNE - has been linked to all sorts of terrible things, but one of the things relevant to our discussion is that its presence in our fat cells not only causes them to grow and grow, but also to never divide.

This enlarged fat cell becomes VERY SICK, basically broken, and it starts sending out hormonal signals and proinflammatory signals to the rest of the body, to the other organs, telling them to RESIST INSULIN.

What happens when the rest of the body starts to resist insulin?

Insulin has a very crucial role in our body. It regulates the burning of sugar, telling your cells to take it in and use it for energy. So when a cell resists the command of insulin, there can only be one outcome.

Your blood sugar begins to rise.

Over time, if this cycle is not stopped your fat cells continue to grow and grow, sending out more and more signals, and your entire body will become pathologically insulin resistant.

This is the fast track to diabetes.

So you see, it is possibly not excess sugar that causes diabetes. In the end, a diabetic does have to monitor their blood sugar and drastically cut carbs because of the damage done, but the initial problem was never the sugar.

It was the seed oils.

In addition, this over-stuffed enlarged fat cell with unstable membranes will begin to leak fatty acids. These end up in your blood stream where they contribute to the destabilization of your arterial wall that is already occurring because of the seed oils you ate (see post). This is one of the reasons why you will see a rise in your triglycerides (a common blood test) if you are dealing with this issue of metabolic dysfunction in your fat cells.

Surely you understand, if your fat cells are stuffed with LA and sick, they can’t POSSIBLY be concerned with how many hours you are doing cardio, how many times you worked out today, or even how many calories you ate. They are being burned alive by all the seed oils that you are cramming into them and do not have the capacity to work properly.

Can you heal this very valuable endocrine organ (i.e. your fat cells)? Of course.

But it requires you to stop all consumption of seed oils, reduce the LA as much as possible, and FEED YOUR BODY a lot of stearic acid from animal foods, so your fat cells can repair themselves.

You must create turnover in your body by feeding it these fats, so that the contaminating LA is released.

Your fat cells can heal themselves and their membranes, begin to burn fat again, signal the correct metabolism to the rest of the body, which will lower your blood sugar and fasting insulin. Your fat cells will then shrink back down to their normal size. You should have a definite waist (no “Dad-bods” here) and your visceral fat will go down to a healthier level.

It’s time to start treating your fat cells like the valuable endocrine organ they are, instead of some pesky irritation. You will be grateful you did.