ELIZABETH JACKSON: In an ironic development, Australian researchers have discovered that fat could itself be the solution to obesity. But not just any fat - brown fat.
Dr Paul Lee is an endocrinologist and research fellow with the Garvan Institute. He told Timothy McDonald that his team has managed to successfully grow brown fat outside the body.
PAUL LEE: The majority of fat in the human body is actually white fat and white fat basically functions as an energy storage system, storing fat for use during times of energy deficiency.
In contrast, brown fat is like a generator, it actually burns fat and releases the energy as heat. About 50 grams of white fat would store about 300 kilocalories of energy but the same amount of brown fat would actually burn 300 kilocalories per day; so brown fat can be seen as an energy burning organ to generate heat.
To read the full, original article click on this link: AM - Fat could be the solution to obesity 03/09/2011
Author: Timothy McDonald
