2018_06_13_FAR_grasa_parda

According to Francesc Villarroya, Full Professor of Biochemistry and researcher of CIBEROBN, "the mechanisms that we have confirmed as effective for increasing brown fat -which is a healthy and necessary fat for the organism- are physical exercise and maintaining a temperature not too high, below 22ºC". This was stated by the expert on the occasion of a scientific meeting on the different types of fat and the prevention of diseases, held at the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition of the University of Navarra.

The director of high school of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona pointed out that programs of study in the U.S. and UK "indicate that the comfort temperature perceived by the population has increased significantly in recent decades, leading to a gradual increase in the temperature in the use of heating. This increase blocks energy expense processes necessary for body weight balance, and is also very unecological".

This increase in comfort temperature is part, he added, "of an environment in general that induces obesity, with an increasing availability of high-calorie foods, sugary drinks, etc.; as well as a greater sedentary lifestyle, more professions that do not involve mobility in the place of work, and closed and artificially heated environments that override the mechanisms of dissipation of calories ingested to generate heat".

This is precisely how brown and beige fats work: "These fat reservoirs in our body dissipate energy in the form of heat and are involved in controlling the metabolism of sugars and fats".

Omega 3: natural activator of brown and beige fats

On the other hand, the expert - who, together with his team, published a study in Nature Communications on the role of Omega-3 fatty acids in the activation of brown and beige fats - explained at meeting that it is still necessary to determine "which molecules derived from Omega-3 are the ones that really have these beneficial effects on metabolism and, in this way, develop nutritional intervention strategies.

Overall, he stressed that the work of research is now aimed at finding tools to activate brown fat independently of environmental temperature and taking into account the peculiarities of each individual, with biomarkers to detect in a simple and cheap way the level of different fats: "Let us remember that active brown fat not only influences obesity, but also the reduction of blood glucose levels and, as a consequence, the prevention of diabetes, especially in adulthood".

This meeting -coordinated by the professors of Physiology and researchers of research center in Nutrition at the University of Navarra and IdiSNA, and editors of the Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry, María Jesús Moreno Aliaga and Pilar Lostao- was attended by a hundred national and international participants.