Whoa! Sunlight could actually shrink your fat cells

UAlberta researchers first to observe lack of sunlight makes our cells store more fat.

Original story: Reader's Digest, January 2018, Edited and paraphrased for length by Sasha Roeder Mah. - 20 September 2018

Artwork by Natasia Designs

Winter always seems to bring on weight gain, even if we resist Christmas baking and stick to our workout routines. A study in Scientific Reports, led by U of A pharmacology professor and director of the Alberta Diabetes Institute Peter Light, may show why.

Light and his team put some fat cells under lamps giving off blue light (the shortest visible light to come from the sun) for four hours and kept other samples in the dark. After two weeks, the fat-cell groups showed remarkable differences.

The blue light-treated fat cells had fewer lipid droplets-organelles that store fat-than the cells that didn't get any light. What's more, the lipid droplets in the light-treated cells were also smaller than the ones in the placebo group.

While more studies are needed and the researchers haven't pinned down why light affects fat storage, the study authors believe blue light might tell your body how to store fat. During the winter, when daylight is short, your body is programmed to store fat; with more sunlight in the summer, your body burns it off again.

The researchers hope the findings could lead to weight-loss innovations, but warn not to try shedding pounds just by spending extra time in the sun.