Turning bad fat into good, breakthrough reported

Researchers have found a way of changing so-called “bad fat” into “good fat” by helping it to burn off both calories and weight. The study, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the United States, could help reduce obesity levels by altering the expression of a protein linked to appetite .
The work, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, showed how to lower the calorie intake and the weight of rats during tests, as well as changing their fat composition, so that unhealthy white fat became brown fat. It is hoped that injecting brown fat stem cells under the skin to burn white fat and stimulate weight loss could also achieve this fat change.
It is known that the good fat is a big factor in the chubbiness of babies, which generates body heat and uses up calories. However, the ratio of brown fat to white fat changes drastically as we get older, becoming more of a health problem. It is thought that helping the body to make more brown fat instead of white fat could lead to improved weight management and reduce the risk of obesity and related health issues such as type 2 diabetes.
Researcher Sheng Bi commented “If we could get the human body to turn bad fat into good fat that burns calories instead of storing them, we could add a serious new tool to tackle the obesity epidemic.”