Although the breakthrough findings are currently only applicable to rats, the research may pave the way for future treatment of obesity among humans. The results of the research can be found in the journal Cell Metabolism.

In a study involving appetite regulation in rats led by Dr. Sheng Bi, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, the discovery was made that by switching off a protein in the rats’ brains, ordinary white fat, including stubborn belly fat, was turned into energy burning brown fat. Regarding the discovery, Bi pointed out, “If we could get the human body to turn ‘bad fat’ into ‘good fat’ that burns calories instead of storing them, we could add a serious new tool to tackle the obesity epidemic in the United States.”

Although infants are known to have an abundance of brown fat tissue that generates heat to help them stay warm, it has long been thought that brown fat diminishes as we grow older and seems to vanish completely by the time we reach adulthood. However, research recently revealed that adults do retain a certain amount of this healthy brown fat. By increasing the amount of brown fat a person stores, an effective weapon for fighting obesity may result. However, given that the discovery of fat transformation was made while altering the brains of rats, there will be the need for a great deal more research into the development of an alternative method for initiating the conversion of non-healthy white fat into energy burning brown.

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