Research looks into why pear shaped women could be less at risk of diabetes

The results were striking in that they found the way in which the fat is stored varies in action depending on where on the body the fat goes.
The study, carried out by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, took place over eight weeks and participants were encouraged to put on weight to help the researchers investigate how the fat is being put on.
The findings show that fat cells around the stomach and heart grow in size rather than growing in number of cells, whereas the opposite effect was noticed for fat cells around the bum and thighs, which grew in number rather than getting bigger. Researcher, Dr Jensen points out, “So, different mechanism, different impact.”
The research follows previous studies which have shown good indications to suggest that pear shaped women are less at risk from serious health conditions such as heart disease, strokes, and type two diabetes. A low waist to hip ratio (smaller waist, larger hips) is widely thought, these days, to be a better indicator of health risk than the commonly used BMI ( body mass index ) measurement.
Follow up studies will see researchers looking into the genetics to find out why the cells grow differently.