Obesity is certainly not a term that comes to mind when thinking about health. While indulging in foods rich in saturated fats can quickly lead to weight gain, a new study suggests that there might be a positive aspect to weight gain as well. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona say that obesity can sometimes protect people from certain diseases. Although a diet rich in unsaturated fats may exacerbate some diseases, scientists suggest that consuming saturated fats may offer protection against them. The findings of this study may answer why obesity seems to have a positive effect during acute or short-term illness.
The authors of the study cite acute pancreatitis as one example, where diets high in unsaturated fats may worsen this condition, while saturated fats could provide protection from it. The research team, led by Professor Vijay Singh, wrote in the journal Science Advances, "Obesity sometimes appears to be protective against certain diseases, and this obesity paradox has mostly been reported in observations from the Western Hemisphere during acute illnesses affecting some individuals."
During the study, the researchers analyzed data from 11 countries and conducted experiments on mice. The results indicated that visceral fat stored around abdominal organs, high in unsaturated fat, leads to the secretion of more non-esterified fatty acids that cause cell injury, inflammation, and organ failure even in individuals with a relatively low body mass index (BMI). Meanwhile, visceral fat high in saturated fats interfered with the production of these fatty acids, resulting in more moderate pancreatitis.
It is noteworthy that previous research has found that obesity can provide some protection for patients suffering from acute medical issues such as burns, trauma, and cardiovascular surgeries. However, the full impact of fat composition and accumulation in the body on disease severity has remained unclear. A team from the Mayo Clinic and Saint Louis University School of Medicine evaluated how the types of fats consumed by individuals in different populations affected body fat composition and its strong association with acute pancreatitis.
They did this by using 20 reports from clinical trials across 11 countries, linking the severity of pancreatitis with a cutoff BMI of 30. They also examined seven clinical reports with a cutoff BMI of 25, along with data from the Food and Agriculture Organization regarding various dietary fats.
The study revealed a moderate relationship between rates of pancreatitis and the consumption of unsaturated fats, as well as showing that a severe form of the disease occurs in individuals with low BMI in countries that consume diets lower in saturated fatty acids. To test how fat composition affects the severity of pancreatitis, the team fed mice either a diet rich in an unsaturated fatty acid called linoleic acid or a saturated fatty acid called palmitic acid. When they induced pancreatitis in the laboratory mice, only 10% of those on a linoleic-rich diet survived after three days, compared to 90% of those that consumed palmitic acid.
The authors of the study indicate that saturated fats do not interact well with the pancreatic triglyceride lipase enzyme, resulting in reduced production of harmful long-chain non-esterified fatty acids. The authors also noted that other factors not studied, such as gender, genetic background, and the presence of other diseases, may also contribute to increased rates of acute pancreatitis in humans.
