Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
"Fat can protect you against obesity and diabetes," the Mail Online reports. However, the small study it reports on was looking at brown fat, which is only found in small amounts in adults.
In humans, brown fat is mostly found in newborns, who are more prone to heat loss and are unable to shiver to help keep themselves warm. Brown fat compensates by burning calories to create heat. As we grow older, we have less need for brown fat and it is mostly replaced by white fat ("bad fat").
The current study involved just 12 men. It looked at whether men with detectable levels of brown fat differed from men who didn't in terms of how their bodies dealt with sugar, particularly in cold conditions.
The researchers wanted to see what happened when the men were exposed to cold over five to eight hours.
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2015/01January/Pages/Brown-fat-may-protect-against-diabetes.aspx
In humans, brown fat is mostly found in newborns, who are more prone to heat loss and are unable to shiver to help keep themselves warm. Brown fat compensates by burning calories to create heat. As we grow older, we have less need for brown fat and it is mostly replaced by white fat ("bad fat").
The current study involved just 12 men. It looked at whether men with detectable levels of brown fat differed from men who didn't in terms of how their bodies dealt with sugar, particularly in cold conditions.
The researchers wanted to see what happened when the men were exposed to cold over five to eight hours.
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2015/01January/Pages/Brown-fat-may-protect-against-diabetes.aspx