The collection of symptoms that is the metabolic syndrome -- insulin resistance, high cholesterol, fatty liver, and a greater risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke -- are all related to obesity, but, according to a review in the March 9th issue of Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, not in the way you probably think they are. In fact, says Roger Unger of the University of Texas Southwestern at Dallas, obesity is the body's way of storing lipids where they belong, in fat tissue, in an effort to protect our other organs from lipids' toxic effects. It's when the surplus...