This week on On the way with Chom we’ll be talking about something close to home. Stop misunderstanding! Fat isn’t the enemy, but a dear friend that the body can’t live without. Fat doesn’t always make you fat, but it helps you be healthy, feel better, look younger, and live longer. Restore your reputation, debunk misconceptions about fat, and learn more about fat with “Dr. Ken Songphon,” a doctor with experience in skin and beauty. Don’t destroy fat in the wrong places if you don’t want to age prematurely.
When most people think of the word fat, they think of the belly, cholesterol, obesity-related diseases, or fat in various parts of their body. How should we view fat?
Dr. Ken: In the past, people viewed fat as the villain, the taker. But now, that’s changed. Fat is a friend that we must have. So why did people previously view fat as bad? If we go back to the 1970s and 1980s, the trend came with the Beauty Standard. Having a belly was unattractive, having excess fat was bad. That didn’t work. Then came the Low Fat trend, which said that people understood that anything with little fat was good, anything with low fat was good for health. It all came together to create the belief that fat was the villain.
The truth is, nature created fat, which means it must have a function. What benefit does it have for the body?
Dr. Ken: That’s right. In 2025, fat has regained its reputation, not as a villain but as having advantages. What are the advantages? Fat is the starting point. Everyone already knows its benefits: it provides energy to our bodies. But more than that, it’s a precursor to many hormones in the body. The most important are the sex hormones. In men, it’s testosterone, and in women, it’s estrogen. Another hormone created from fat is cortisol, which is the hormone we use to cope with stress. Therefore, when our fat levels drop significantly, our hormones will drop accordingly. In addition, fat is a component of many cells in our body. Things in the brain or various neurotransmitters require fat.
Like what we learned when we were kids, that it’s used as a vitamin absorber?
Dr. Ken: It’s a solvent. Some vitamins are water-soluble, while others are fat-soluble. They’re beneficial if we choose them correctly. But since it’s a deeply ingrained belief that low fat is good, it’s said that every food on this planet is made up of carbohydrates, fat, and protein. It’s just a matter of what’s in abundance and what’s insufficient. When a food is low-fat, meaning low in fat, what follows is usually a lot of carbohydrates. Now we know that fat isn’t bad, but the real villains are sugar and starch.
Is there a relationship between low body fat and depression?
Dr. Ken: It’s possible. This is straightforward. The main hormone is cortisol, which we use to cope with stress. We can cope with this stress because we have the hormone cortisol to cope with it. When we have low fat, where does our body get the precursors to create cortisol? What does a cortisol drop look like? Depression, etc., can happen more often. Another pathway that occurs is in our brain. It’s primarily made up of fat. Fat is a component of cell membranes and neurotransmitters. When they connect together in clusters, they talk to each other. When they talk, they rely on fat. When fat is low, they can’t talk to each other much. Neurotransmission and the transmission of various signals in the brain drop, causing our emotional state to be unstable.
Kingdom of Fat
Dr. Ken: Let’s call it the kingdom of fat. Since we’re going to delve into the topic of fat not being the villain today, we want you to understand fat, right down to its origins. Let’s start with this: If we categorize fat simply, there are two types: blood fat and tissue fat. Blood fat is HDL and LDL, while tissue fat is white fat, brown fat, and beige fat. We’ll touch on those later. Let’s focus on blood fat first. We’ll start with the smallest derivative of fat. We call them fatty acids. They’re the smallest form of fat. They’re further classified by whether they have double bonds in their molecules. If they don’t, they’re straight, hard, and blunt. These are saturated fats. When they’re at room temperature, they’re solid. Real butter is solid at room temperature and also durable and heat-resistant.
Animal fats too?
Dr. Ken: Yes, like pork belly. What we see as a solid lump when it’s at room temperature, cheese like this, fat that has a solid form is saturated fat. The other leg is, what if I have double bonds? Double Bond, this is separate. Are there a lot or a little? If it has one bond, we call it Mono, which is MUFA. What is Mono Unsaturated Fat? Omega 9, like olive oil or avocado, these are good. The next branch is, if they have a lot of double bonds, at carbon 6, this is Omega 6, which too much is not good. But if it’s at carbon 3, what is Omega 3 good? Fish liver oil, or fat found in deep-sea fish, or flaxseed oil. The important thing is that our body will take these things, Omega 3, Omega 6, or Omega 9, and form them into cell walls. Triglycerides, Fatty Acids, can’t float alone in our body. They have to attach to something. For example, they attach to protein. When they attach to protein, You have to look at how tightly it binds. If it binds very tightly, it is called High Density HDL. If it binds less tightly, it is Low Density LDL. If it binds less tightly, the molecules will be larger because the fat is swollen, so LDL is not very good. As for HDL, it is good.
How to increase Brown/Beige Fat
Dr. Ken: Cold temperature can change white fat to brown fat. There is research on this. The research said that if people are put in a temperature of 17 degrees Celsius for at least 2 hours a day for 6 consecutive weeks, they will be examined. This group of people have increased beige fat. So what can you do if you don’t go abroad and stay in Thailand? IF: There is another study that says IF for about 14-16 hours a day, but it doesn’t have to be done often, at least 1-2 times a week. There is also the matter of diet. Certain nutrients can help convert white fat to beige fat. Capsaicin, a substance found in chili peppers, can help if you eat spicy food. Green tea, resveratrol, red wine, and increasing brown fat. Diet and exercise: Exercise that can stimulate brown fat are: 1. Design aerobic exercise, such as cardio or HIIT, or the popular ones that people like to do. Do these 2 types. They say that they stimulate better than training exercise. How to sleep to increase brown fat? You need to sleep well. It will cause fat cells, hormones, and things like that. It tends to change from white fat to beige.
Fat that makes us age faster?
Dr. Ken: There are fats that cause us to age faster and accelerate aging. The first bad one is saturated fat. Next is omega-6. When we eat these fats that aren’t so good, they become components of cell membranes and cell walls, and they can release signals or neurotransmitters that aren’t so good, stimulating inflammation. This causes minor inflammation in our bodies. Sometimes, we don’t experience any illnesses, but we feel unwell, like there’s a little inflammation in our body. It just keeps accumulating.
Do cancer cells like fat? Can they use fat as energy for growth?
Dr. Ken: There’s already research or studies on certain types of cancer cells that use fat cells as a source of energy. Cancer cells are cells that must try to survive. If they have sugar, they use it first. But one day, if the body runs out of sugar, they have to find a way to survive. They can switch to using energy from breaking down fat. So far, they’ve found two types: liver fat cells and ovarian fat cells.
Is it related to why cancer patients are getting thinner?
Dr. Ken: It uses a lot of our energy. Let’s put it this way: Cancer cells are cells that grow endlessly. When they grow a lot, they must use up nutrients in the body, use a lot of sugar, use a lot of fat. But if we have a lot of brown fat or a lot of beige fat, brown fat and beige fat will compete for fat because they can burn fat.
Are liposuction and fat reduction the same thing?
Dr. Ken: Liposuction removes all of it. Reducing fat requires a specific method. If it’s done by injection, we used to dissolve fat by injecting medication. This caused the fat cells to shrink and sag. Ultimately, however, the fat cells can expand, meaning they haven’t disappeared. They’ll come back if you eat a lot. Conversely, if you try to dissolve fat by killing it, it won’t work because we still want our faces to have aura.
And can those that were sucked out come back again?
Dr. Ken: Our body processes fat. If you eat a lot but don’t use it, it will be stored as fat.
Summarizing the correct perspective on fat, Dr. Ken: Let’s talk about it now. In this year, we have more developed knowledge. We’re beginning to know more details about fat. I don’t want to generalize that fat is a bad thing. Fat is our friend. There are both good friends and bad friends. How do we choose good friends to be with us? As for bad friends, we put a brake on them. Therefore, the perspective we should have on fat is to choose good fats to be the precursors of something good in our bodies.
