Our body has two types of fat, called brown and white fat. The first is also known as brown fat and is responsible for maintaining the proper body temperature, as well as being used as fuel. Instead, white fat is the one we all hate for making us have love handles. Brown fat is stored in different parts of the body, such as the neck, spinal cord, or kidneys; when the body feels cold activates this tissue to use blood sugar and fat to generate heat.
But is this type of fat healthy?
A team of researchers from Rutgers University conducted A study in which they found that brown fat could also help the body filter and remove basic and essential branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) from the blood. Among these are leucine, isoleucine and valine, closely related to obesity and diabetes if stored in large quantities.
The BCAA They are found in foods such as eggs, meat, fish, chicken and milk, but there are also athletes who choose to consume it in the form of supplements to increase muscle mass. Apparently these substances are beneficial for improve metabolism and performance of the athletes, but a excessive consumption It is linked to cases of obesity and diabetes. BCAA supplements are intended for those who have active brown fat, but may be detrimental to those who do not have this type of brown fat (elderly, obese, or diabetic) as they will not have the same elimination capacity.
What they say from this study is that this type of fat could protect us against obesity and diabetes, since it works better than white fat to eliminate these amino acids. However, more research is needed to examine why some humans have this type of fat and others do not, or how it can be activated. Could they make drugs that increase the amount in the body?
The SLC25A44 protein is in charge of everything
The research discovered that a new protein, SLC25A44, is responsible for controlling the rate at which brown fat removes amino acids from the blood and uses them to produce energy and heat. This discovery has taken more than 20 years to resolve, although scientists suspected the existence of some mitochondrial transporter of BCAA. The next step is to learn how to manipulate it so that it is able to remove as many BCAAs as possible and improve metabolic health.
However, researchers still need to know if the absorption of BCAAs by brown fat can be controlled by environmental factors, such as exposure to cold temperatures or consumption of spicy foods, or by medications.