While browsing the world wide web the other day, I ran across this article on treehugger that suggests that cranking up the heat in our homes during the winter could be making us fat. At first, I was like, I am pretty sure eating too much crap is making us fat, but the article had an interesting argument that I thought I would throw out to you.
Apparently, cold temperatures activate “brown fat” that we carry in our upper backs and neck. It doesn’t behave as regular fat, it insulates us from cold weather AND burns a ton of calories doing so. When we aren’t exposed to colder temperatures, because our homes are completely and comfortably climate controlled and our cars are toasty warm during our commutes, our “brown fat” isn’t activated, thus contributing to the rising numbers on the scales.
The article threw out some interesting statistics {yes, I said interesting and statistics in one sentence}:
The average temperature of British homes in 1978 was 64.9, by 2008 it had crept up to 70.8. They offered similar numbers for the U.S. and even argued that before central heating, bedrooms were kept significantly cooler than the main living area of the house, because the main living area would have been heated by a fireplace or woodstove, making transitioning from room to room a little more work for our brown fat. {Brown fat or not, I was totally shocked by how much we have cranked up the heat–I wonder if our ancestors think we are big fat {pun intended} babies?}
Of course, there are opponents of the whole arguments–saying regular diet and exercise are still the best bet. Where do you sit? You think there is any truth to the whole keep it cold to keep the weight off theory?
~Mavis
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