Here’s the kicker. Being thin is not a safeguard against metabolic disease or early death. Up to 40 percent of normal-weight individuals harbor insulin resistance—a sign of chronic metabolic disease—which will likely shorten their life expectancy. Of those, 20 percent demonstrate liver fat on an MRI of the abdomen (see chapter 8).7 Liver fat, irrespective of body fat, has been shown to be a major risk factor in the development of diabetes.
