Why (some) humans are born to have a beer belly?
Scientific literature on excess weight and health is expanding along with global waistlines, and yet, it's hard to find a solid, coherent scientific explaination for why some people get fat and others don't, and why some overweight people get Type 2 diabetes and heart disease and others don't.
waistline, n. 腰围
coherent, adj. 连贯一致的，条理清楚的
Last week, an evolutionary biologist published a sweeping picture of human fat and health in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
sweeping, adj. 影响广泛的，全面的
picture, 描述
The biologist, Mary Jane West Eberhard of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Costa Rica, has focused her work on understanding biological variation.
variation, n.变化，变异
Sometimes individuals with the same genes can show dramatic differences. She proposes that the same biological principle can explain why humans come in quite differenct shapes. Some people put on so-called visceral fat, surrounding vital organs, while others put on so-called subcutaneous fat on the limbs,hips and elsewhere. This makes a big difference in health because recent studies show it's the visceral fat that's associated with Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
dramatic, a. 引人注目的，激动人心的
subcutaneous, a. 皮下的
She looked into visceral fat--also known as the omentum, apart of the immune system. It wraps around the vital organs and protects them from infection. But what's protective early in life can have a downside later. Our natural immune response often involves inflammation, and that has been associated with Type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.
omentum, n. 网膜
downside, n. 负面，缺点，缺陷
inflammation, n. 发炎，炎症
coronary, adj. 冠状动脉的
Analyses like West-Eberhard's paper might change the way we see our fellow humans. What makes a person with gorgeous, enviable curves different from someone with an unhealthy looking gut? It's not necessarily that one is more "out of shape" or less self-controlled.
enviable, adj. 令人羡慕的
visceral, a. 内脏的；本能的，出自内心的