They are many benefits that come from adipose tissue (fat). It is an essential part of life, but it is often thought of as a human's worst enemy. With increasing trends in fad diets, and unsafe practices in weight loss being accepted by many, it is important to understand why we should love fat and why God designed our bodies to store it. Here is a description of four beneficial aspects of adipose tissue:
1. Adipose tissue secretes leptin. Leptin is a polypeptide hormone that has the potential to interact with several brain mechanisms and together, those may lower and maintain body fat. This may also play a key role in increasing metabolic fitness, reducing health risk factors, and improving overall health of obese people.
2. There are long-term adiposity signals - leptin and insulin - which act on brain mechanisms to inhibit food intake and increase energy expenditure.
3. Adipose tissue takes up glucose and uses it for the synthesis of glycerol 3-phosphate which feeds into the process of glycolysis. This is crucially important because glycolysis is a metabolic pathway in which ATP and NADH are produced.
4. Adipose tissue stores and releases fatty acids. When triacylglycerols are released into circulation, they are hydrolyzed by lipoprotein lipase in the adipose tissue capillary bed. After this occurs, and if a person enters into starvation (or just a hungry state), stored triacylglycerols are hydrolyzed by lipase, which is hormone-sensitive. This allows for free fatty acids and glycerol to be released into circulation. Free fatty acids yield a large amount of ATP, which provides energy to multiple tissues within the body. Glycerol is an important energizer to cellular metabolism.
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