Novel mice experiments carried out by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center¹ are helping to clarify the relationship of fat and disease. Mice bred not to be able to store fat, which were then fed a high fat diet, became diabetic and diseased much faster than the mice who could store the surplus calories as fat.

This means that storing fat is partly a defense mechanism against too much food. It shows that the act of eating too much food turns on powerful gene networks that cause disease. It is gene networks out-of-control that are the main driving force of disease. Leptin is the main controller of this system of genetic signals gone wrong, as far as your body weight is concerned. And this helps explain why rule #3 of the Leptin Diet: Do not eat large meals, is so important.

While the current mouse research does not take into account many aspects of how fat itself causes disease (like clogging organs, arteries, and raising overall inflammation), it does point out that in some ways the ability to store extra calories helps keep other aspects of your body working a little bit better – at least for a while. However, after years of obesity-related problems there is no question that any short term adaptive benefit will be overwhelmed and that fat itself will actively participate in disease processes.

In order to keep yourself in a non-disease pattern of gene-related function it is vital to follow the Leptin Diet and use dietary supplements as tools to help keep you on track. Modern science does have a clear take home message: properly managing entire gene network systems is the real key to maintaining your health.