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It sounds too good to be true, but scientists may have found a way for you to eat as much fat as you want without gaining any weight.

You are what you eat, or so they say. While it’s not exactly that simple, a diet containing a lot of fat is likely to mean your body fat percentage will be higher than if you ate less fat.


It might not remain that way for long. Scientists have discovered a way to block fat from being absorbed in the gut. It could potentially tackle the health issue of obesity through the development of a drug that targets those same receptors.

Almost five million people in the UK are expected to be morbidly obese by 2035, according to a study published in May this year. This is an increase on the 1.9 million recorded as of 2015. According to the NHS, obesity and being overweight contribute to at least one in every 13 deaths in Europe.

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However, with UK sales at McDonald’s increasing by 7.8 per cent in the first three months of this year, it seems we may not be cutting back on high-fat food.

The new results pave the way for an alternative option, potentially allowing people to keep eating high-fat food but not gain fat. The study, published in the journal Science, involved feeding mice a high fat diet for eight weeks. Some of the mice were given a drug to block the production of a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A). This protein stimulates production of blood vessels, and blocking it prevents the fat from reaching the small lymphatic vessels, where fat is transferred to the gut via pores.


The results showed the fat was blocked from entering the small lymphatic vessels in the gut in those that were given the drug. These vessels line the gut and ensure uptake of most dietary fats through permeable pores, called junctions.

The VEGF-A inhibitor is already in use in other aspects of medicine, and it works in just a few hours.

"Although the authors don’t state this, the implication is that if this did work in humans then you take a pill just before a meal and it closes the gut to lipid uptake," says professor Alan Mackie from the school of food science at Leeds University, who was not involved in the study.

“We found that a molecular mechanism to close these pores inhibits fat uptake in mice,” says Anne Eichmann from Yale University, co-author of the study. “Instead of being taken up into tissues, much of the fat is excreted in the faeces, and mice do not gain much weight on a high fat diet.” The mice with blocked receptors didn’t gain weight, but the others doubled in weight.

Drugs targeting certain proteins, like VEGF, are already used to treat patients with glaucoma and are being tested for other conditions as well, according to Eichmann. On top of this, low levels of VEGF have already been associated with weight loss in patients with breast cancer, says Mackie.


The study showed some adverse effects of the treatment. Some of the mice, for instance, developed edema. This is because blocking the part of the gut that uptakes fat also affects the uptake of liquids. However, Eichmann says the mice could tolerate it. If the drug goes on to be further studied for humans, this is something that would have to be looked into further.

“We found that such drugs also close the pores of the lymphatic vessels in the gut and inhibit fat uptake" she says. "They could be tested in humans for lipid lowering effects.”

The authors recommend the next step should be to study the impact of the drug on humans, since only mice have been used so far. But this could take a long time. "There would be potentially unpleasant side effects if you suddenly prevent lipid absorption so I think we are some way from this scenario" says Mackie.