As if heath news wasn’t confusing enough these days (think good cholesterol, bad cholesterol), researchers say they’re zeroing in on a way to promote “good” fat, which efficiently burns energy and could be used to combat obesity. While adults have very little of this beneficial fat naturally, researchers are hunting for pharmaceuticals that could boost production.
[T]here are two distinct types of fat tissue: white ‘bad’ fat acts as an energy store whereas brown ‘good’ fat, which largely disappears by adulthood, helps in burning calories to generate body heat, which is crucial to keep babies warm…. These cells are brown because they are rich in energy burning structures called mitochondria [Telegraph]. Now, two new studies reported in the journal Nature [subscription required] have investigated ways to trigger the creation of these cells.
