GIVEN my predilection for peanut butter and ice cream, the offer of a scan to measure my body fat wouldn't normally fill me with excitement. But this is no ordinary fat map, and for once I'm hoping to have a lot of the stuff.
While normal white fat stubbornly stores excess calories on hips, bellies and thighs, over the last few years a picture has emerged of a different kind of fat – one which, paradoxically, might help us to lose weight. This is brown fat, which challenges all our assumptions about the fat in our bodies: it burns calories rather than storing them.
It was only six years ago we discovered that brown fat exists and is active in adults. Since then, it has become the focus of attention as a potential tool to help combat obesity and its related diseases. And the ...
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