Even if I didn't have a calendar or wasn't aware the days are longer I'd know that summer is around the corner because I'm seeing and hearing ads that encourage women to use products that will get rid of their "cellulite." I actually heard of an expensive lotion that can be rubbed on the skin where "cellulite" appears. You can prove you are getting rid of the fat by getting in a tub of hot water and watching the fatty residue rise to the surface of the water. Of course they didn't mention that the lotion was an oil based product that would float off as soon as you get in the hot water.

Cellulite is a term coined in European salons and spas to describe deposits of dimpled fat found on the thighs and buttocks of many women. Widespread promotion of the concept in the United States followed the 1973 publication of Cellulite: Those Lumps, Bumps and Bulges You Couldn't Lose Before, by Nicole Ronsard, owner of a New York City beauty salon that specialized in skin and body care. Cellulite was alleged to be a special type of "fat gone wrong," a combination of fat, water, and "toxic wastes" that the body has failed to eliminate.

Ever since, "anticellulite" products have been sold through retail outlets, by mail, and through the Internet. They have included loofah sponges, cactus fibers, special washcloths, horsehair mitts, creams and gels that promise to "dissolve" cellulite. You can also purchase supplements containing vitamins, minerals and/or herbs, bath liquids, massagers, rubberized pants, exercise books, brushes, rollers, body wraps, and toning lotions which will "firm and smooth those unsightly lumps and bumps."

Cellulite is not a medical term. It is simply ordinary fatty tissue. Strands of fibrous tissue connect the skin to deeper tissue layers and also separate compartments that contain fat cells. When fat cells increase in size, these compartments bulge and produce a waffled appearance of the skin. Since skin texture varies from person to person a low in body fat person could have dimpled tissue on the back of their legs and arms and a overfat person may not have any.

There have been many double-blind studies to determine whether "cellulite" differs from ordinary fat. Some use ultrasonographs, others have used microscopic exams and still others studied fat metabolism to see how affected and unaffected skin areas differed. In all cases the researchers concluded that fat hasn't gone wrong. Some of it is stored deep in our body and some is stored just under the skin. Some of us have skin that makes this subcutaneous fat more visible and some of us don't.

Meanwhile, if you send me $60 (or three easy payments of $20/each) I'll send you some of that lotion.