What happens after we eat
I’m not talking about digestion here - but, please, if you feel bloated, uncomfortable and acidic after you eat, do book in for the Power of Food as I have been phenomenally successful in guiding clients to digestive success (use the button at the end to book a free Zoom call).
In this article, I am trying to bring into sharp focus the relationship between what & how much we eat, our fat stores and our health.
Where does the fat come from?
This diagram is summary of what happens after we eat.
Food is our fuel.
Ideally, we want to match our fuel intake to our energy needs. This is more complex than a calorie count. Saving your points for a glass of wine at the end of the day is not the path to optimal health and longevity. There is truth in the old adage “eat less, move more” as long as what you’re eating less of is sugar and processed food, whilst making sure you’re eating enough protein, healthy fats and fibre.
If we don’t use all of our available fuel, it has to go somewhere, it doesn’t just disappear - we can store a little excess in our muscles and liver, but the next stop is our under-the-skin (subcutaneous) white fat store. The size of our subcutaneous white fat store varies between individuals (known as our personal fat threshold).
Once we have filled our personal fat store, any excess fuel accumulates as fat around the liver and pancreas and causes health havoc.
BUT all is not lost forever. We can encourage our subcutaneous white fat to become metabolically marvellous beige fat. Reducing the quantity of subcutaneous white fat, frees up some storage space which inhibits the build up of harmful visceral fat and we can start to work our way back towards feeling energised and well.
Beige is beautiful
Beige fat can:
burn fuel to release energy and maintain our body temperature, thereby resulting in body fat loss,
help to restore sensitivity to insulin, so that glucose can enter the cell for use, as opposed to accumulating in the blood and causing health havoc,
help to restore optimal levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, thereby promoting cardiovascular health.
I will explain what we know about encouraging deposits of white fat to turn beige in the next article.
Further reading: this is a fantastic paper - (2024) Ghesmati et. al. “An update on the secretory functions of brown, white, and beige adipose tissue: Towards therapeutic applications”, Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders, 25(2):279-308.
