The body has two forms of fat: white fat, unwanted fat that can lie directly underneath the skin, and brown fat, found in the neck, around the shoulder blades and kidneys, and along the spinal cord.
Lauded by Harvard Medical School researchers as the ‘New Obesity Tool’, brown fat or brown adipose tissue can help burn more calories due to mitochondria loaded with UCP-1. Mitochondria are the part of the cell responsible for producing energy.
A distinct type of tissue, brown fat is activated in response to cold temperatures, and its primary role is to produce heat and maintain body temperature.
“The capacity of brown and beige fat cells to burn fuel and produce heat, especially upon exposure to cold temperatures, have long made them an attractive target for treating obesity and other metabolic disorders,” said Yu-Hua Tseng, HMS professor of medicine at Joslin.
While brown fat cannot be created in the body, there is evidence that the existing fat we have can be activated.
Here are some of the ways that you can do that…
- Cold water therapy
- Eat spicy food rich in turmeric, curcumin, capsaicin and capsinoids
- Add cinnamon and ginger
- Drizzle extra virgin olive oil
- Drink green tea
- Tuck into polyphenol-rich foods like berries, nuts and vegetables
The Nature Communications journal reported that individuals with more brown fat had a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, elevated blood lipids, cardiovascular disease, cerebral vascular disease, congestive heart failure and hypertension.