Brown Adipose Tissue — When It Pays to Be Inefficient

Abstract

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions, and complications related to obesity contribute substantially to health care costs and mortality. Since the accumulation of fat is the net result of a prolonged state of imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure, one would think that an ideal fat mass in obese persons could be achieved relatively simply by either decreasing food intake or increasing energy expenditure, ultimately causing a sustained negative energy balance. Unfortunately, this is not so easy to achieve, because evolutionary pressure has rewarded those individuals and species able to store sufficient energy to survive famines; also, the unrestricted availability . . .