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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		The counter-intuitive way copper helps burn fat
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:03
	Publish Date:		2016-08-08 19:00:00
	Description:		It looks like you can thank copper for your body’s ability to burn fat. According to chemist Chris Chang of the University of California, Berkeley, the metal nutrient acts as what’s called a “brake on a brake,” using a somewhat counterintuitive process to metabolize fat. "There’s a process that stops normal fat burning, and what we found was that copper stops or blocks what normally blocks fat burning. And so by blocking the block, then you actually allow fat burning to proceed." Chang found that tissue could not burn fat as well without copper, which you take in normally through your diet. "It’s mainly found in green leafy vegetables, different sorts of fruit, nuts, mushrooms, and seafood/shellfish. The biochemical mechanisms that we identified in fat tissue turn out to be conserved in other parts of the body. And so it might have some implications for other diseases or normal behavior and function." Similar interactions with copper are also found in the brain, heart, and pancreas.
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