 By Elena Voropay It's not uncommon for anyone to gain up to 10 pounds during winter. As a matter of fact, eating more food in winter is the body’s natural response to find the means of generating heat, and increased caloric intake is one of them. Your body will also try to insulate itself from cold environment by increased tissue insulation, namely fat. Thanks to the superb efficiency of living organisms to adapt, the body will do everything possible to create an insulating layer of fat cells and hold on to it. Arctic animals are a good example of the nature’s adaptation principle – nice thick layers of fat and fur keep them warm.
But seasonality is not the only appetite thermostat. The body produces sufficient heat to maintain core temperature between 97’F and 100’F with an average of 98.6’F (37‘C) under almost all conditions. The basis of the body temperature is the heat produced by the working cells of body. The greatest furnaces are your muscles and liver, each generating about 25 percent of the total body heat. The resting brain, the utmost student’s asset, produces about 15 percent of the heat. Interestingly, the studying brain does not produce much more heat. Interestingly, the temperature of your body varies with the time of day being lower in the morning and higher at the end of the day. This is due to the fact that food consumption and physical activity increase our body temperature. Upon awakening, your body has deprived water and glycogen stores resulting in poor blood circulation and heat production. As you eat and exercise throughout the day, heat production raises keeping the body in homeostasis. During physical activity, more than 75 percent of the energy produced by the working muscles is converted to heat, which elevates core temperature. The blood vessels dilate allowing more blood to flow to the skin. This activity transfers heat from the deeper tissues to the surface of the body. With exercise, the amount of heat produced by the muscles may increase by hundreds of times. Have you ever wondered why foods such as celery and lettuce are said to produce “negative calories”? For a simple reason – these foods require more energy for the digestion, absorption, transportation and metabolism than the actual energy found in them. This process is referred to as the thermal effect of food (TEF) and may increase your energy expenditure by 6-16 percent for as long as 8-10 hours. Believe it or not, foods high in fat and sugar don’t possess the same properties and may actually lower the TEF, some studies suggest. Now there is another reason to eat your fruits and veggies and load up on vitamins and minerals they contain. |
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