The Color of Health

By Editorial Staff

Could it be a question of brown vs. white? Those are the two colors of fat, believe it or not, and which one you have more of can have a profound impact on your health. Here's why.

Simply put, you want more brown fat and less white fat. That's because the former burns calories, while the latter stores calories. A new study involving more than 50,000 people (by far the largest in humans on the topic) suggests type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease are all less likely in individuals with detectable brown fat.

White fat is fairly easy to detect, but detecting brown fat can be difficult, if not impossible, without specialized imaging (a PET – positron emission tomography – scan, the type used by researchers to assess brown fat in this study). This study, findings from which appear in Nature Medicine, is important not only because it involved so many participants, but also because it was able to correlate brown fat with so many important health variables.

So, how do you get more brown fat? Check out these five simple ways to turn white fat into brown fat courtesy of Prevention. You'll not only be lowering your disease risk, as this study suggests; you'll also be burning more calories (remember, brown fat uses energy / calories). That means if weight loss is one of your goals this year, you'll be on your way to a trimmer you in no time.

weight gain - Copyright – Stock Photo / Register Mark



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