HHS HealthBeat (February 02, 2009)

Apples, Pears, Livers and Hearts

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Are you an apple or a pear? An apple-shaped person has belly fat – and a higher risk of heart disease than a pear-shaped person, with extra weight in the thighs and butt.

But fat is not just apples and pears. Researchers at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis looked at fat in the liver. They examined obese teens – both apples and pears – for signs of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Sam Klein says apple shapes indicated fatty livers, but it was really fatty livers that were most closely linked to risk factors for heart disease.

He adds:

[Sam Klein speaks] ``If you lose weight, you eliminate the fat in your liver. Calorie restriction is the key – is the therapy – for fatty liver.’’

The study in the journal Obesity was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: February, 02 2009