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It's what you do with the fat that matters!

Nature Medicine volume 13, pages 1137–1138 (2007)Cite this article

Obesity and a diet rich in saturated fatty acids can lead to high lipid levels in the liver and insulin resistance. However, inhibition of a key enzyme that elongates long-chain saturated fatty acids can protect against insulin resistance in fatty livers, even with concurrent obesity (pages 1193–1202).

The Greenland Inuit have traditionally eaten a diet high in fat and low in vegetables, and they have the same rates of obesity as people in industrialized Western countries. Mysteriously, though, obese Inuit tend to be healthier than their counterparts in Western cultures1,2. It has long been known that the types of fats in one's diet affect general health. For instance, foods rich in the 'good fats', polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such as the omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, are a staple in the diets of the Greenland Inuit. PUFAs protect against the real culprits in metabolic disease, the 'bad fats'—long-chain saturated fatty acids (LCSFAs)3. Unfortunately, the incidence of obesity and metabolic disease in Western societies continues to grow at alarming rates, partly because of diets rich in LCSFAs and almost bereft of PUFAs.

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Figure 1: Loss of Elovl6 leads to improved insulin signaling even in fatty livers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Diabetes and Metabolism Division, Clinton R. Bruce and Mark A. Febbraio are in the Cellular and Molecular Metabolism Laboratory, Baker Heart Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia. mark.febbraio@baker.edu.au,

    Clinton R Bruce & Mark A Febbraio

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  1. Clinton R Bruce
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  2. Mark A Febbraio
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Bruce, C., Febbraio, M. It's what you do with the fat that matters!. Nat Med 13, 1137–1138 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1007-1137

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