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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		A novel way to boost the body's supply of a 'good fat'
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:04
	Publish Date:		2015-11-01 18:00:00
	Description:		For the first time, scientists have developed a novel way to increase the body’s supply of energy-burning brown fat, which promotes weight loss and other metabolic benefits. Lead author Kevin Tharp of the University of California, Berkeley says the team grew brown-like beige fat in the lab from white-fat stem cells and implanted them into mice. "Beige fat, which is basically what we have created in our lab synthetically is converted white fat cells and so when we take these beige fat implants and put them into mice, their overall metabolic health improved. And this is in terms of the amount of weight that they gained on a high fat diet and this is in terms of their general glucose homeostasis." Tharp says that adult humans have a naturally low supply of brown fat in their bodies, and so artificially increasing that amount could lead to new ways to combat obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic disorders. "You could theoretically improve someone’s metabolic health by creating an increase in the amount of brown fat mass in an individual."
	Total Play:		0