Are you taking cues from a slim friend who lives on low-fat yoghurt, green juices and bliss balls?
Or maybe you’re that girl who exercises regularly and is relatively slim (other than a little pudginess around your stomach and jawline). Stop!
There may be more to these images of wellness than meets the eye. In fact, if you dig deeper, these “healthy” outward appearances may actually be cause for a real health concern.
What the heck is TOFI when it’s not sounding like an ergonomic car?
Coined by Professor Jimmy Bell, TOFI stands for “Thin on the Outside, Fat on the Inside” and refers to a fast-growing health concern in Western countries. The condition is notoriously elusive because, from the outside, everything seems normal… healthy, even. But, as science has shown, that “wholesome” appearance is only skin-deep.
British scientists have found these TOFIs carry a lot of fat around their organs, which is not always visible from the outside, hence they look thin. This organ fat is also the worst kind of fat, directly linked to metabolic syndrome.
Take a look at the following MRI scans, for example. These people have exactly the same age, gender, BMI and percentage of body fat. But, as you can see, Person 1 has over three and a half times the visceral fat collecting around their organs. This spells big, dangerous issues.
Why is TOFI fat so much worse?
Visceral fat comes with a cluster of eeky health-related risks. Heart disease, insulin resistance, fatty liver, systemic inflammation, and high levels of bad cholesterol are all strongly linked to visceral obesity. And, perhaps most alarmingly, visceral fat is mostly hidden and only detectable through medical scans.
13 per cent of people with a healthy BMI are estimated to be TOFIs, and most don’t even know they have too much visceral fat. Yep, you might also be surprised to learn that active people with “healthy” BMIs can even be metabolically obese and type 2 diabetic, proving once again that overeating and sedentary lifestyles are just one piece of the puzzle with modern lifestyle diseases.
Could it be the green juice?
Many TOFIs eat balanced, calorie-controlled diets, exercise daily and still can’t shift their visceral fat. Still, there is compelling evidence to believe that sugar, and more specifically fructose, can lead to increases in visceral fat.
Indeed, meta-analyses of data (including over 3,000 articles and hundreds of thousands of participants) support the idea that excess sugar consumption leads to development and worsening of metabolic syndrome.
(One of the main symptoms? Abdominal obesity). So, even if you do exercise regularly, count calories and have a healthy BMI, we reckon it’s worth laying off the white stuff… yes, even green juices.
P.S. You can still have a liquid breakfast if you want. Here’s why we prefer green smoothies over green juices.
We originally published this article in March 2016. We updated it in March 2017.
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