Coveted Calorie Burning Brown Fat Is Found in Adults

Faithful readers learned a bit about the perplexing white fat/brown fat dichotomy last August, when it was reported in the journal Nature that a kind of (good) brown fat actually burns calories, while standard issue (bad) white fat stores them. Now comes some more research, written up in three studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine, revealing that calorie-burning brown fat, which had been thought to exist only in animals and human babies, is also found in adult humans. Science News reports that researchers who studied the PET scans of 1,972 people found evidence of brown fat in 7.5 percent of the women and
3.1 percent of the men. The journal reports that brown fat was more apparent in people younger
than 50, people with healthy blood sugar levels, and in lean people.
Comparisons with weather records showed the fat was more evident in
scans taken when the weather was colder.
Sadly, Science News reports that the obvious question about brown fat: “How can I get some?” remains unanswered. The journal reports that researchers are still trying to figure out if missing brown fat is a cause or consequence of obesity. For the moment, at least, the experts caution that the consequences of
always-active brown fat are unknown. If brown fat burns too many calories, they warn, the body may simply try to get more
calories. Understandable.  Read more in Science News.