When it comes to something as life and death important as to what to feed ourselves and our families,

we should rely not on anecdotes, but on facts.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Have you ever heard of the Trendelenburg position?

Lying in this position at a slight head-down tilt may actually help you burn fat.

Here's the first story.

When our blood volume drops, our kidneys detected in angiotensin is released.

When our blood volume rises, on the other hand, our heart detects it and releases a hormone

called AMP, atrial-naturedic peptide, also known as

ANF, atrial-nateuretic factor.

We used to think our heart was just a pump, but now we know it's also a gland.

There are stretch receptors in the first chamber of our heart, and when extra blood pours

into the heart,

A&P is released. What does it do? As the title of review in a obesity journal put it,

heart hormones fuel a fire in fat. If you drip AMP on human fat and muscle tissue,

fat is rapidly released and the muscle cells ramp up their capacity

to burn it.

Infuse AMP into people, and the rate at which fat is mobilized and burned can shoot up 15%.

You can take muscle biopsies from people and show how much better their muscles get

at burning fat in the presence of elevated AMP levels.

No surprise then that obese and overweight individuals

...