The Fat You Wish You Had

A baby has brown fat. Hopefully you and I do as well.

Brown fat, white fat…isn’t all adipose tissue the same?

Previously thought of as the domain of infants and hibernating bears, brown adipose tissue has been identified in the adult human body as well.

Two papers that appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2009 reported that adult humans have brown fat, found in small blobs. These blobs showed on PET/CT scans when the people scanned were in cool surroundings, with room temperatures at 61–66°F. Blobs of brown fat show up on PET scans because these scans identify areas in the body where cells are more actively using glucose (1–2).
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