In what can really only be good news, coffee could be the answer to the world's obesity crisis.

Yes - your morning Americano could do more than just give you a buzz, if a new study is anything to go by. Scientists have discovered that caffeine can trigger the body's fat-fighting defences. Drinking a cup of coffee can stimulate brown adipose tissue (also known as brown fat), a team at the University of Nottingham's School of Medicine has found. This type of fat helps to generate body heat by burning calories, which in turn reduces individuals' Body Mass Index (BMI) and can improve blood sugar control. The team first used caffeine in stem cells in their work before moving on to caffeine in humans. This is one of the first times researchers have been able to boost brown fat activity in humans, said Professor Michael Symonds, who co-led the study.

"This is the first study in humans to show that something like a cup of coffee can have a direct effect on our brown fat functions," he told Science Daily. "The potential implications of our results are pretty big, as obesity is a major health concern for society and we also have a growing diabetes epidemic and brown fat could potentially be part of the solution in tackling them."

Happy days. It goes without saying that to ward off diabetes and obesity, it may be worth sacrificing the caramel sauce you get in your regular Starbucks order. So, yeah. If we can wean ourselves off our iced lattes with all the trimmings we may all be saved.