According to a new study, consuming fish oil can help reduce weight gain in middle-aged people by transforming fat-storage cells into fat-burning cells.
Researchers from Kyoto University in Japan found that fish oil activates receptors in the digestive tract, fires the sympathetic nervous system, and induces storage cells to metabolize fat.
Not all fat tissues store fat. There are 3 types of fat cells – White, brown and beige cells. “White” cells store fat in order to maintain energy supply, while “brown” cells metabolize fat to maintain a stable body temperature. Brown cells are abundant in babies but decrease in number with maturity into adulthood.
A third type of fat cell – “beige” cells – have recently been found in humans and mice, and have shown to function much like brown cells.
Beige cells also reduce in number as people approach middle age; without these metabolising cells, fat continues accumulating for decades without ever being used.
The scientists investigated whether the number of these beige cells could be increased by taking in certain types of foods.
The team fed a group of mice fatty food, and other groups fatty food with fish oil additives.
The mice that ate food with fish oil, they found, gained 5-10% less weight and 15-25% less fat compared to those that did not consume the oil.
They also found that beige cells formed from white fat cells when the sympathetic nervous system was activated, meaning that certain fat-storage cells acquired the ability to metabolise.
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
