Researcher Discusses Obesity Findings

A Medical Xpress article by NYITCOM-Arkansas researcher Natarajan Ganesan, Ph.D., explains that our bodies are far smarter about using fat for energy than we might expect. In his essay, he describes how the body doesn’t burn fat randomly—instead, it chooses certain types of fat that produce the most usable energy while using the least amount of oxygen, which is especially important when oxygen is limited, such as during intense exercise or illness. Energy in the body is measured as ATP, a molecule that acts like fuel for cells, and fats are broken down through a process called fat oxidation, meaning they are chemically “burned” to release that energy. By comparing different fats, Ganesan shows that the types most commonly stored in the human body are also the most efficient, suggesting this is the result of evolutionary fine-tuning rather than chance.

“What I observed using calculations, derivations, and examining thermodynamic aspects is that our body runs on what I call an ‘oxygen economy,’” writes Ganesan, an assistant professor at NYITCOM-Arkansas who specializes in biophysics. “When oxygen is rate-limiting—which is basically all the time—our cells preferentially burn fatty acids that give them the most ATP per oxygen molecule consumed…This selective mobilization in white adipose tissues has been known for a long time but not fully explained, until probably now.”

The article also appears on MSN.com.