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Oh, I was so excited to see this story‘s banner! Could medical science really be having an epiphany, finally, leading them to the conclusion our ancestors reached a handful of millenia ago?

Fight fat with fat? The newest obesity theory suggests we may one day be able to do just that. Just like good and bad cholesterol, there apparently are good and bad types of body fat. Scientists until recently believed this good fat, which spurs the body to burn calories to generate body heat, played an important role in keeping infants warm but by adulthood was mostly gone or inactive.

Oh, we’re not talking dietary fat, but body fat. Too bad. Well, let’s still see what the latest news is, shall we?

Now three studies – from researchers in Boston, Finland and the Netherlands – show that some good fat remains in adults, affecting metabolism and potentially offering a target to help people shed pounds.

Dr. Francesco Celi, an endocrinology and metabolism researcher at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, said the studies show this fat burns large amounts of energy.

Okay, nothing earth shattering there.

“So it could be used as a target” for a pill that would somehow rev up the fat, he said.

Wait a minute. A pill? As in “eat whatever you want, exercise or don’t and take this magic pill to make it all better?” I though we’d gotten beyond that. How disappointing.

Dr. Louis Aronne, former president of the Obesity Society and a weight control expert at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, said the findings are the most conclusive evidence so far of the role of such fat in regulating body temperature and weight.

“I don’t want to use the word ‘exercise-in-a-pill,’ but it’s doing something (that’s) getting rid of calories,” he said, adding that any obesity treatment developed around the fat could be a potential treatment for diabetes as well.

The studies were published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

Yes, let’s not use the word ‘exercise-in-a-pill’ because…oops! I said it, oh well, tell the jury to strike please, unring the bell, you didn’t hear it from me, tee hee. Oh, and a treatment for diabetes too, let’s throw that in to make it a medically necessary thing, not just a vanity ‘do-these-pants-make-my-butt-look-big’ thing.

The good fat is actually brownish, while the more predominant bad fat is white or yellow. Brown fat is stored mostly around the neck and under the collarbone. White fat tends to concentrate around the waistline, where it stores excess energy and releases chemicals that control metabolism and the use of insulin.

All three research groups documented the presence and activity of the brown fat by examining tissue samples from some patients and using high-tech imaging that indicated how much sugar, and therefore calories, the fat burned.

Okay, anyone see any problems here? First we have the “this does this and that does that” arrogance that taught my parents that you don’t need an appendix, tonsils or adenoids. Funny how we found out differently once science got a glimpse of truth. We just don’t know enough about how the human body works to start declaring good from bad, useful from evil. I remember twenty years ago a family member was told that he was at risk for stroke because of the fat around his neck and he should consider liposuction to have it removed. Wait, now it’s ‘good fat?’ What about tomorrow?

One group from Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School and three hospitals in Boston looked at scans done on nearly 2,000 patients to diagnose various health problems. The other two groups scanned small numbers of patients, first at room temperature and then after a couple hours in mild cold, about 60 degrees.

Here’s what the scientists learned about brown fat:

- Lean people had far more than overweight and obese people, especially among older folks.

- It burns far more calories and generates more body heat when people are in a cooler environment.

- Women were more likely to have it than men, and their deposits were larger and more active.

You know, it’s really hard to tell what exactly is being measured with the information provided. But I can tell you this: unless these test subjects were clones of each other, the results are suspect. Further, these results really tell us less than the article would like to claim. Women were more likely to have brown fat than men. Is that because they are women? Do female hormones create more brown fat? Quick, let’s give all overweight diabetic men female hormones!! Does brown fat encourage release of female hormones? Oh wait, maybe that won’t work, then. The body is an incredibly complex set of systems, not a machine. You can’t just change the oil and tune your engine differently without inviting breakdowns in a whole host of other systems.

Finding a successful treatment for obesity would be a Holy Grail for scientists. Most obese and overweight people are unable to shed pounds and keep them off with dieting and exercise.

And despite plenty of effort, pharmaceutical companies have been unable to develop a medicine that helps people safely lose and keep off a significant amount of weight. Any drug that could do that would be a guaranteed blockbuster.

DING! Paydirt. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason for the study. Money. Whoever gets develops the magical skinny pill makes (say it with me, Dr. Evil) Billions. Oh, if only there were some way to mix a fenflurmine-phentermine cocktail…oh, been done? Rats. Well, what about a magical eat-anything-you-want fat blocker? Or a magical pill that sticks to the fat you eat so your body can’t absorb it! Yeah! Oh, right. People are already taking it and the rates of heart disease, obesity and diabetes continue to rise? Hm.

Aronne said the findings likely would renew interest in the area of brown fat among drugmakers; at least one briefly studied a treatment in lab animals several years ago.

So how could researchers use these basic findings about good fat to eventually come up with a weight-loss medication?

One possibility would be a pill to stimulate a specific protein to release more energy from the fat cells in the form of heat rather than storing it for future energy needs, Aronne and Celi said.

Finding a way to increase the amount of brown fat in a person would be another strategy. Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston have been injecting certain genes into mice to try to produce brown fat cells instead of white ones.

Celi said researchers also could try to make a pill that stimulates nerve endings inside brown fat to make it burn more calories.

Or overweight people could simply try turning down the thermostat to see if it makes them burn more energy and lose weight – a strategy that Celi and researchers are testing in a small study that could produce results by the end of the year.
Again, the erroneous thinking that we can tinker with one gene or mess with one chunk of electrical system without dire consequences.

Dear friends, there is no magic pill. Each and every attempt to create one to date has proven a medical nightmare. Are you really willing to sacrifice your heart tissue or your intestinal tissue to a drug that has been inadequately tested and is destined to be withdrawn amid multi-million dollar lawsuits in a decade? Are you willing to endure illness brought about by nutritional deficiencies that no twenty-first century human should have to endure?

I leave you with the simple wisdom of Michael Pollan, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” And an addendum by me, “And don’t hold the butter.”

In pursuing a diet of real, whole foods, I have come across a lot of touchpoint issues. I am in the process of determining my vision for this style of eating. I find when my commitment falters; when I get tired of paying twice and three times as much for local, organic food, raw dairy and pastured meats; when I just want to plop on the couch and call out for pizza; when the teenager complains yet again about the lack of white bread in the house; it helps me to have a mission statement, a compelling vision.

But there are so many great reasons for eating real food that I’m having a hard time choosing just one!

• Health I guess the idea of improving our health, reducing disease and protecting our teeth is a big reason. It’s how I got here and the area in which I’ve seen the greatest improvement. Not having health insurance, it’s important to me to do what I can to protect my family’s health.
• Community Being a hermit, I am surprised how important community has become for me since embarking on this journey. I never really gave any thought before to the farmer up the street, the dairy cows next to the high school, or the people at the farmer’s market. But now that I’ve shaken the hand that feeds me, my life has changed for the better.
• Education I love learning new things and tend to throw myself quite wholeheartedly into topics that interest me. I have learned so much about food, farming, the body’s use of food, sunshine, water, and consumer activism that sometimes I think my head will explode. And as much as I learn, I find there is always more!
• Consumer Activism, or as my friend Food Renegade calls it, Civil Disobedience Okay, I admit it. I have a rebellious streak. Supporting the local over the institutional, the organic over the conventional, the raw over the processed has a certain militant ring to it. Even better, I can start in my own comfort zone (my kitchen and home) and not out on the street holding signs and lobbying Congress. Yet.
• Spiritual Strengthening I tend to find times of communion with my Lord in the quiet moments when I reflect upon the things He created. I could spend half an hour meditating on a dandelion flower. It doesn’t get the garden weeded, but it is refreshing. The more I learn about eating whole, traditional foods, the more I am amazed by the variety of flavors, colors and shapes that are provided for our food. The more I learn, the more I glimpse the sufficiency of the grace provided for me for my day to day life. All I need is here, simply and elegantly, without enriching, bleaching, processing and packaging. This closer walk with nature brings me much closer in mind to the One who created it. Of all the points, I think this is my most compelling vision because it is nourishing not just to my body, my social life, my brain or my flesh, but the part of me that is eternal.

If you read this blog regularly, or are even visiting, I’d love to hear your comments. What is your compelling vision?