Pear-shaped women like Beyonce and J Lo at ‘lower risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes’
LADIES, it turns out your big bottom doesn't just look good in jeans - it could be protecting your health as well.
People who are thin but carry a little extra weight on their hips and thighs have a lower risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes, according to new research.
But for the one in five people who are a normal weight but considered "metabolically unhealthy", which means their metabolism is not functioning properly, their risk of the killer diseases is three times higher.
Pear-shaped people, with a booty like Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez, escape this group because the bottom and thighs are safer places to store fat on the body.
Scientists say that the hips and thighs act like a sponge that soaks up fat and stops it from travelling around the body to the heart and liver where it can cause disease.
Fat on the hips and bum is stored for months whereas belly fat, the most dangerous kind of fat, is released about two hours after a meal.
Researchers from the Department of Internal Medicine IV of the University Hospital Tübingen and the Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases in Munich analysed data from 981 people to asses their risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes.
They used magnetic imaging to determine their body fat mass, fat distribution and amount of fat in their liver.
They also examined their insulin sensitivity and secretion to determine if they already had, or were at risk of, diabetes.
The researchers found that lean people with low leg fat mass were the most at risk of being metabolically unhealthy.
But it obese people belly fat was more likely to cause stroke, heart attack, diabetes.
Is a low BMI healthy?
Many people believe that if they have a body mass index (BMI) in the normal weight range of 18.5 to 25 then they are healthy.
But that is not necessarily the case.
Being thin does not mean that your metabolism is working properly.
For 20 per cent of people with a normal BMI they are considered metabolically unhealthy.
So they often suffer high blood pressure, high blood sugar or high levels of fats in the blood.
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Those in this group, despite being thin, are at a greater risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes.
But carrying fat around your hips, bum and thighs could reduce that risk, the study concluded.
The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
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