This will make you put down that cookie

According to an article at BestLifeOnline.com, fat cells are not the lazy, inert slobs we think they are. They are not just sitting around making us look bad. Oh, no. They are busy trying to kill us.

Sounds like the plot of a bad horror film doesn't it? Attack of the killer fat cells! (Oh wait, maybe it was already a movie -- I think it was called "THE BLOB."

Anyway, what the article says is that fat can actually be considered an endocrine organ, meaning that it is producing and secreting various substances all the time. And guess what? For the most part, those substances are not good for us. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

The secretions are called "adipokines" and they include hormones and other compounds that cause high blood sugar, raise blood pressure, and inflame the arteries possibly causing arterial plaque to come loose and block blood flow. Yikes! I'm going to remember that the next time I hear a cookie calling my name.