What Do You Know about the Secret Life of Fat?
If you were to list the organs of the body, would it occur to you to include fat? Most people think of fat as a nuisance, an intruder or even an enemy to be overcome. But fat is crucial for normal physiological processes. What should you know about the secret life of fat?
Discovering the Secret Life of Fat:
Author Sylvia Tara is a biochemist who has been fascinated with fat. As she looked into its functions, she discovered it does much more than simply store energy. As it turns out, fat is metabolically and hormonally active. It communicates constantly with other cells in the body. How does it do that, and what are the results?
When Good Fat Goes Bad:
Find out how good fat can go bad and start to feed inflammation in the body. How do the microbes in our intestines affect our fat and its behavior? Fat cells also interact in important ways with the immune system, particularly with T cells. Is that what accounts for the “obesity paradox,” in which overweight people have better survival under certain stressful circumstances?
Dr. Tara reveals the secret life of fat and tells us about behavioral methods that can help us control how much fat we carry. What are the dangers of yo-yo dieting, and how can we avoid them?
This Week’s Guest:
Sylvia Tara holds a PhD in biochemistry fro the University of California at San Diego and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of The Secret Life of Fat: The Science Behind the Body’s Least Understood Organ and What It Means for You. The website is http://thesecretlifeoffat.com/ The photo of Dr. Tara was taken by Joshua Michael Shelton.
Listen to the Podcast:
The podcast of this program will be available the Monday after the broadcast date. The show can be streamed online from this site and podcasts can be downloaded for free for four weeks after the date of broadcast. After that time has passed, digital downloads are available for $2.99. CDs may be purchased at any time after broadcast for $9.99.
