William Atkins
Thursday, 09 April 2009 19:04
Science -
Health
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Several studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine have concluded that brown fat (good fat) can burn off white fat (bad fat) in order to lose weight. It looks like babies may help in the global obesity epidemic because brown fat is also called “baby fat.”
Brown fat, more technically known as brown adipose tissue (BAT), is one of two types of adipose tissue. The other adipose tissue is white adipose tissue (WAT), or white fat.
A higher number of mitochondria give brown fat its brown coloring. Mitochondria, a part of cells, helps with cell division and various other functions of cells.
One of the functions of brown fat is to generate body heat, which is why brown fat is also called baby fat because babies use brown fat to stay warm. Brown fat makes up about 5% of all the fat contained on babies. It is generally located on their backs.
Brown fat does a better job of generating body heat than white fat. Bears, for instance, use brown fat when hibernating because it helps them stay warmer. When humans begin to shiver, for example, brown fat becomes activated and begins to generate heat for the shivering, cold body.
According to the WebMD article “
Can Brown Fat Make You Thin?,” by Daniel J. DeNoon,
“By activating the brown fat in your body, you could lose 9 pounds or more of bad white fat every year -- without having to eat less or exercise more.”
Brown fat is baby fat and it was once thought only babies had it. That is, it went away as babies got older and developed more muscles.
However, scientists now know that adults have small amounts of brown fat (good fat) in their bodies, along with increasingly higher amounts of white fat (bad fat).
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