White Fat vs. Brown Fat: Its Cold Out There!

I was perusing some headlines and I noticed a new study regarding warmer indoor temperatures contributing to obesity. Weight loss gimmicks, fads, wisdom, research, etc. always interest me due to the gross level of misinformation and narrow focus they present. This latest one didn't disappoint.

It has to be one of the stupider lines of research I've seen. Really? You mean that if people make it warm and cozy inside and decide not to go outside and exercise or work, they'll get fatter? Thanks for that news flash! How about you try a real comparison: measure people that "live in the cold" against those who are warm but workout regularly. But, make sure you are using test groups that have the same relative daily caloric expenditure.

If cold is the primary factor during winter, then I would expect all of those NYC hotdog, magazine, and other street vendors to be "brown fat" laden and ready to be muscle machines come warm weather (you have to read the article and underlying science to understand what I'm talking about). Obviously, there are some serious gaps in the study. There may be interesting science around brown and white fat cells, but once again American science has perverted a line of research to conform it to a specific goal(s).

What is that goal or goals? Well, of course, our ultimate desire is to be fat and lazy without the effects of being fat and lazy. So, if researchers can figure out a way to trick the body into producing more of those "good" brown fat cells and less white, via the next miracle weight-loss drug, then they'll declare success. The next goal is somewhat hidden in the article, at least until you reach the end. The theory goes that if we want to fight obesity, then we should all turn down our thermostats...which just happens to save energy and reduce carbon emissions.

I'm absolutely not against saving energy and reducing carbon emissions, but don't try to sneak an agenda in through the back door of a national health issue. Furthermore, why in the world does research always focus on such narrow parameters, putting blinders on to correlations? It's almost a guarantee that whoever they studied in the "cold" has a higher energy output than whatever slobs they found sitting around inside their cozy homes. If you read the wording carefully, you'll notice that the real comparison is between indoors and outdoors, not true controlled temperature tests. Does it take a scientist to figure out that the average person who spends more time outside in the winter will be less fat? Let's look at the groups who would be outside: athletes, manual laborers, farmers, nature buffs, etc. It's easy to see that those groups all have more active lifestyles.