Friendly Fat Theory – Explaining the Paradox of Diabetes and Obesity

Obesity has been called the mother of all diseases and, historically, has been strongly linked to diabetes. However, there are still some paradoxes that exist in diabetes epidemiology and obesity and no unifying hypothesis has been proposed to explain these paradoxical phenomena. Despite the ever-increasing prevalence of both obesity and diabetes, differential relationships exist between diabetes and the extent of obesity in various different ethnic groups. In addition, people with a higher body mass index have been shown to have an improved survival advantage in terms of chronic diabetes complications, especially cardiovascular complications. This narrative review attempts to explain these paradoxical and complex relationships with a single unifying theory. We propose that adipocytes are actually friends of the human body to prevent the occurrence of diabetes and also help in mitigating the complications of diabetes. Adipose tissue actually acts as a reservoir of free fatty acids, responsible for insulin resistance, and prevents their overflow into insulin-sensitive tissues and, therefore, friendly fat theory.