| Did you know that fat comes in two distinct, if | | | | subjects were left in a chilly room for several hours. |
| unimaginative, colors - white which offers insulation and | | | | Experts found that this fat, unlike the white kind, burns |
| stores extra energy, and brown adipose tissue which | | | | calories faster in colder temperatures. |
| burns energy to produce heat? | | | | In the study, the metabolism was an average 15 times |
| Brown fat (as much as 5% of their body weight) helps | | | | higher than in the area where the white fat cells reside. |
| keep newborns warm, but no one knew how much | | | | Could brown fat play a role in our metabolism also? |
| adults retain, or how active it might be. | | | | A third work, also appearing in the same issue of the |
| Some thought adults had none of this "good" fat; | | | | NEJM, conducted by a team at Maastricht University |
| others were convinced that it had no connection to | | | | Medical Center found that obese men had less brown |
| extra weight or obesity. The latest research in this | | | | fat than subjects who were leaner. |
| area changes all that. | | | | They also found that people have less brown fat as |
| Studies have been going on for decades looking at | | | | they age, and that spending even a small amount of |
| brown fat (known to science as brown adipose tissue) | | | | time in a chilly place can activate this type of fat. |
| in the hope of finding ways to unlock its secrets. | | | | These studies show that adults do have functional |
| Now a trio of reports appearing in the April 9, 2009 | | | | brown fat in our bodies. Though no one knows what |
| issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) | | | | role brown fat might play in weight loss in the future, |
| confirm finding brown fat in adults, and that it can be | | | | researchers are hoping for big things. |
| detected by exposing subjects to cold temperatures. | | | | Maybe research will uncover a way to help the body |
| Most of us have small deposits of this fat around our | | | | produce more brown fat; or just activate the potentially |
| collarbones and in the neck area, with women having | | | | good fat cells we have now. Perhaps a drug could |
| two times as much (estimated to be about a half | | | | target some parts of brown fats metabolic |
| ounce) on average, then men do. | | | | mechanisms, perhaps a procedure could remove the |
| In some cases, those who had more active areas of | | | | brown fat, amplify it somehow and return it to the |
| brown fat were not as heavy... leaving experts to | | | | body. |
| wonder at the working of this type of fat. | | | | Cypress sees activation as key, though whether this |
| "Fifty grams of maximally activated brown fat | | | | would make people lose weight has yet to be tested. |
| accounts for 20 percent of your resting energy | | | | Who knows if turning on this type of fat might just not |
| expenditure," explains Dr. Aaron Cypress of the Joslin | | | | make the body want to eat more? |
| Diabetes Center in Boston, who led one of the studies. | | | | If you'd like to try and activate your own stores of |
| "If you add that up, that's 400 or 500 calories per day. | | | | brown adipose tissue, turn down the thermostat, or |
| So maybe a little of this good fat could go a long way. | | | | spend more time outdoors in a cooler climate. |
| In a second study, Finnish researcher Dr. Kirsi Virtanen | | | | Temperatures of 61 degrees were used on the |
| of the University of Turku and colleagues used | | | | research subjects, and might be enough to have your |
| positron emission tomography (PET) scans to locate | | | | own heat generating, fat burning engine humming along |
| active brown fat deposits in healthy volunteers. | | | | in no time. |
| The brown fat became more active when the | | | | |