Word: fatted
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Scientists are also focusing on the differences between two types of fat cells, known as brown and white. The former, active in young mammals (including humans), convert fat into heat rather than storing it. That's crucial in newborns, whose temperature-regulation systems aren't fully formed. As we age, the brown cells become inactive and the white, which convert dietary fat to body fat, take over. Several research teams have found that by reactivating the brown cells in an adult animal with medication, they can burn off fat dramatically. Now the doctors are looking for a genetic switch that...
What's becoming clear to scientists in the obesity business is that the body's energy-processing system involves not one or two but a maze of metabolic pathways. POMC, leptin and brown fat cells are part of the story. But nerve cells have also been implicated in weight regulation, and it's not clear how these different pathways relate to one another. "Not a month goes by," says Dr. Eric Ravussin, director of endocrine research at Eli Lilly, "without publication of a new pathway that regulates feeding behavior, giving us new potential targets...
...seems likely that for a while at least we'll keep getting fatter. We can't undo evolution, and we haven't found a way to fool Mother Nature--yet. But before the 21st century is half over, with the body's fat-centric metabolism laid bare and the ability to manipulate genes part of medicine's standard tool kit, the trend may finally stop. Chubbiness may not disappear, but it could become optional. A future without Richard Simmons' commercials would be a wonderful future indeed...
Malthus cared about only one species: ours. And, ecologically speaking, ours is an unusual species. With the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago, we became the first species in the 3.7 billion-year history of life not to be living as small populations off the natural fat of the land. Taking food production into our own hands, we stepped outside the local ecosystem. All but a few cultivated plants became weeds, and all but a few domesticated herds, pets and game animals became pests and vermin...
...lentil pate, steak is replaced by tofu cutlet and a banana-and-ice-cream dessert is made with rice milk instead of cow's milk. Lanza's critter-free meal has less than half the calories of a meat-heavy dinner and a third of the total fat. And lest you think meat-free eating means protein-free eating, the percentage of calories from protein in Lanza's meal is the same as in a steak dinner. If the future can be made this appetizing, even a T-bone palate could learn to be happy in a tofu world...