Brown Fat, White Fat - What's it All About?

Recently there has been a spate of articles and news reports about something called "brown fat". Though you may never have heard of it, scientists have been intrigued by it for years- they just never thought we humans had any of it.

Now they do.

Why should you care?

My friend Shari Lieberman, PhD, explains it perfectly. "Brown fat keeps bodies warms by functioning as a built-in heater, burning fuel and raising body temperature", she says. In other words, brown fat is metabolically active- it burns calories. And that, of course, is the holy grail of weight loss programs.

Problem is, brown fat is common in rodents, but in humans... not so much.

At least that's what everyone- except forward thinking nutritionists like Lieberman and Ann Louise Gittleman- thought.

Not any more.

Three studies appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine indicate that we humans have the stuff too. Why are they just figuring this out now? Because they were looking in the wrong place. In rats, the brown fat is mostly between the shoulder blades, and in human infants it's a sheet of cells covering the back. But the latest studies show that human adults have brown fat in the upper back, on the side of the neck, in the dip between the collarbone and shoulder, and along the spine.

Unlike white fat which just sits there and annoys you- all the while pumping out chemicals and hormones that interfere with your health and your ability to fit into your Frankie B's—brown fat is like a little furnace, burning calories. If we could only stimulate that brown fat- and believe me, the drug companies are already working on the problem- we'd be able to burn more calories without eating differently or even exercising.

I'm not sure that's a good thing, but that's another story. The point is, if you were eating well, and exercising regularly, stimulating your brown fat might help move things along nicely.

Since Lieberman and Gittleman were both ahead of the curve on this one, it might be worth it to hear their recommendations on natural ways to stimulate brown fat. Gittleman is a fan of evening primrose oil (active ingredient GLA) for just that purpose. And there's even stronger evidence for green tea extract- also known as EGCG.

"Green tea specifically stimulates your body's ability to burn fat in addition to overall calories and stimulates brown fat", says Lieberman. "Studies show that using green tea even without dieting causes weight loss- so using it with a weight-loss eating plan should give you excellent results".