This type of fat actually helps you get leaner, perform better athletically, and live longer. Here’s the science.
Here’s something you may not know: Scientists order lab mice from a catalog, almost like they’re ordering a pizza with the exact toppings, cheese, and crust they want.
Suppose they’re studying how a certain supplement ingredient or drug affects obesity. In that case, they’ll order some genetically modified “ob/ob” mice that lack functional leptin (a hormone regulating appetite), resulting in obesity. Need mice with a certain form of cancer? Mice with a propensity to develop mental health problems? The catalog has them.
In the fascinating study below, the researchers ordered a batch of “long-lived RGS14 knockout mice.” These guys have enhanced brown adipose tissue (BAT) function. Compared to wild-type mice, RGS14 KO mice live 20% longer, look youthful for a long time, and perform like little furry athletes (longer running distances and greater work to exhaustion).
Then the researchers did something crazy: they took BAT from the super-mice and injected it into regular mice. What happened was pretty cool.
Wait! What is BAT?
Brown adipose tissue or brown fat is body fat packed with mitochondria that contain an uncoupling protein, enabling it to burn energy to generate heat (thermogenesis) rather than storing it as fat. In short, normal white fat stores calories while brown fat burns them. BAT is crucial for maintaining body temperature.
People with an above-average amount of brown fat are generally leaner. You’ve heard all the hype around cold exposure therapy, right? The goal there is to increase brown fat to get lean and possibly extend lifespan.
Back to the Study
When the researchers transplanted brown fat from the super-mice into normal mice, the regular rodents experienced dramatically enhanced exercise performance within three days. This suggests that the brown fat from the super mice possesses unique properties that rapidly boost exercise capacity.
The researchers hope they can soon develop an anti-aging drug for humans based on this research that would fight fat gain, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s. It might even boost exercise performance. No ice baths required.
What Can We Do Now?
Cold exposure therapy is promising, but the research is kinda mixed. Studies show it works to increase BAT, but some of those studies have participants freezing their butts off for 2-6 hours per day. And cold exposure may increase hunger according to one study, which could offset some of the benefits. Still, there’s probably something to cold exposure therapy. Hey, it’s worth a shot.
Supplementally, the nutrient C3G – cyanidin 3-glucoside, a naturally occurring anthocyanin – also turns white fat cells brown, meaning that ordinary fat-storing white cells are converted into energy-burning brown cells.
One paper, published in the Journal of Biochemistry, described how C3G “induced phenotypic changes to white adipocytes (fat cells).” These changes included increased mitochondrial content, the hallmark trait of brown fat cells. C3G also promoted “pre-adipocyte differentiation,” meaning it coaxed baby fat cells into going brown.
C3G is sold as Indigo-3G Nutrient Partitioning Agent (Buy at Amazon).
Reference
- Vatner DE, Zhang J, Vatner SF. Brown adipose tissue enhances exercise performance and healthful longevity. Aging (Albany NY). 2024 Dec 18; 16:13442-13451