text_1: Heart Hormone Linked to Calorie-Burning Brown Fat
text_2: There’s no denying our collective interest in treatments that will magically burn fat without requiring us to eat less or get off of our couches. And we’ll grant that the “brown fat” discussed in this story is scientifically intriguing in that it seems to burn calories rather than storing them as garden-variety “white fat” does. But we think it’s far too soon to be touting a group of heart hormones as holding “the key to an effective weight loss treatment” merely because they increase brown fat levels in a single study conducted in mice. Although the story did introduce some caveats, they came too late to counterbalance the overoptimistic tone of the coverage. How long will it be before supplement marketers start touting pills that “activate brown fat” based on this very preliminary research? Oh, wait– they already are.