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Published online 20 August 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.1051
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Boosting 'good' fat to burn off the bad
Origins of calorie-sizzling fat cells uncovered in mice.
To most dieters, no fat is good fat. But in work published this week in Nature, an insight into the origin of a special class of calorie-burning fat cells could lead to new ways of boosting metabolism and combating obesity, researchers say.
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The problem of obesity and the obsession to solve it by a means other than eating less and exercising more is distorting medical research and reporting. I am not saying investigating different cell types is in anyway wrong or not valuable, but proposing gene therapy or hormone treatment because people won't eat a proper diet would be something I expect to read in a bad parody if it were not reality. Well I guess there is no money to made encouraging people to eat proper balanced diet, but lots to be made, selling drugs, and lobbying for the beef and pork industry. Cheers Grant Morgan
Grant, your simple assumption that folks haven't gotten the message that eating less and exercising more is the answer turns a blind eye to the realities of modern society. When two parents are working full-time to support a family in a middle class lifestyle, there is little time to make sure fresh healthy meals are prepared 3x7 days a week. Our school lunch programs fail us with packaged, processed foods that are expedient not healthy. More importantly you ignore simple genetics which gaurantee that you and I will process food (sugar, insulin, basal metabolic rates, etc) differently. I was born prematurely which predisposes to type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome. What should I do about that? These distortions in metabolism elevate appetite, hunger, dull satiety, and generally have wholesale effects on the brain and body that simple "willpower" can often do little to overcome. Ask the 95% of all overweight people who have lost weight only to gain it back. Are 95% of them that weak...or is there a biochemical feedback loop with the stresses of modern society keeping them fat. I don't know any obese people who prefer their current morphotype. Pharmaceutical interventions in this arena have the potential to improve the lives of more than 20 million people in the U.S. only (many more if you include simple obesity) that deal with these types of disorders daily. A broader view of the reasons breakthroughs like these are pursued would benefit all of us and not just the pharmaceutical or beef and pork industry. Cheers
Of course you're right about genetic and environmental disposition, David, but you've laid out another lie perpetrated by modern society: that fresh and healthy meals are some sort of drastic time drain and therefore aren't attainable and sustainable. There is never an excuse to sacrifice nutrition and if priorities are an issue they need to be reevaluated for the collective good of your family.
Well Dan, I never said it was impossible to prepare healthy nutritious meals but it certainly is more challenging than it need be. My point was that society as a whole needs to change those priorities and those at the middle to bottom of the socioeconomic scale pay the highest price nutrition-wise. Be honest...healthier foods generally cost more and take longer to prepare. If both parents are working that time goes out the window (well but not for you as I am sure you could handle it- if we'll all just sacrifice a little more...yeah right) I suspect your comments about my family's priorities are based on your inexperience with raising a family under less than ideal circumstances. I would love to hear your quick and easy recipes for all the healthy meals that your children eat and enjoy. Are they slim and healthy weight due to what you feed them or primarily their genetic background?? Care to venture a guess?
The assertion that beef and pork cause obesity is derived from religious beliefs, and is without scientific basis. For yet another scientific study revealing that a low carbohydrate diet (which may or may not be meat based) produces weight loss see: Iris Shai et al. Weight loss with a low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or low-fat diet. N Engl J Med 2008 Jul 17; 359:229.
The dieter who is want to have a slim build, try to aviod making an unhealth diet,such as fry foods,greasy foods,and do a great deal of exercise.
Genetics and environment, (along with the time factor they need to play their effective roles in our lives), should be the Targets of our study. The more we understand them, the better for us. The wayward drunkard on the street-has he brought it on himself or is he merely victim of genetics? The question has always plagued us. Let us earnestly search for answers.
At some point in one's life, he/she was at their perfect shape and ideal weight. There are those who have kept it that way, then those who foundered and became overweight. What simply went wrong was they started and continued to eat more than they should have. They overeated because of only one thing, APPETITE. If there was a way to control that engine of overeating, no one would be obese. There are medications that do these and if taken continously judiciously will keep that weight well controlled and enable one to follow that low calorie diet for good. C Tiglao
I really don´t agree to the fact that this is only a medical issue.A final cure for overweight/obesity delivers A CHOISE to eat candy,pizza,snacks,etc.,without getting fat.Sure,there is other factors that makes it unhealthy to eat junkfood.It will even perhaps shortening the lifetime too,but so does Alcohol,smoking,some medications,spending time in the sun,etc. .-What gives the healthy people the right to deny(or at least try to) the unhealthy people a cure for obesity ?.-Why shouldn´t i "be worthy" to eat and drink what i want,and yet stay thin ?.If i,as a junkfood eater,dies at age 58,i´m a much "cheaper" member of the society than the "salad eaters" who hangs in there until 85.Besides the medical aspect,the question about a cure for overweight is also about democracy,personal freedom,and moral/ethics.-Apologies for my bad english.
The article mentions that the boosting of brown fat cells will lead to the change of the body temperature which may drastically deteriorate many processes in the body. On my opinion modifying the adipokine profile of white fat cells has a better future in terms of anti-obesety and metabolic syndrome therapy. Some adipokines, like adiponectin, control not only energy homeostasis but the the appetite as well. Manipulating visceral fat to boost "good" adipokines and shut-down the "bad" ones might be easyer to achieve i.e. without genetherapy, but by means of cytokines or receptor modulators.