Recently, the weather has been exceptionally cold, and many people are concerned about how to eat warmly. As soon as the weather is cold, the appetite rises. There have been many studies to support the rationale for the increase in appetite in winter.
However, what you eat is also important. What foods can you eat to make you feel warmer?Is it possible to provide calories to the body just by eating high-calorie foods?
Let me tell you the answer to the second question first: eating high-calorie food does not mean that you can warm up your body. Like lard, cakes, cookies, fried foods, ......These are of little help in improving cold resistance.
High calorie ≠ high warmth.
Many people will ask: Why?
For the sake of explanation, we can think of the human body as a heating "factory".
The fuel for this plant is the caloric components of food, including fat, starch and sugar. The "combustion boiler" of the factory is the mitochondria in the human cell. The products of the factory are the energy produced by the human body, including the heat that warms the body, and the chemical energy that can promote the body's blood circulation, cell renewal, tissue repair, work and study, and other things.
Eating a lot of high-calorie food is actually sending a lot of fuel to this plant. If there is no fuel, there will inevitably be a shutdown, so in the long run, if you eat too little food and too few calories every day, you will definitely not be resistant to cold.
However, even if these fuels are piled up, they may not always burn smoothly and efficiently, allowing the boiler to release enough heat.
If there are too few boilers in the human body, or if there is a problem with the "feed pipe", or if the factory command system gives instructions to reduce production efficiency. Then, even if there is enough fuel, the heat produced will not be enough.
So, who is the boiler?As I just said, it's the mitochondria in the cell.
There are many mitochondria in muscle cells, so the more muscles a person has, the more full and developed they are, the greater the total amount of mitochondria in the cell.
And the larger the proportion of fat in the body, the less total mitochondria, because there is only a lot of fat in the fat cells, and there are very few mitochondria.
In this way, it can be understood that people with more muscle have a higher ability to produce heat, while people with a high proportion of fat have a poor ability to produce heat.
For example, athletes are usually not afraid of the cold, and bodybuilders also wear thin clothes in winter because they have full muscles and strong heat-producing ability.
And many fat people, although they have a thick layer of fat to keep warm, are still not more frost-resistant than others because they produce fewer calories in the first place. (Just like a popsicle, even if it's covered with a thick quilt, it's still a popsicle).
Of course, those thin people who lack fat, have little muscle, and have skin and bones are naturally less resistant to cold. All they have to do is increase their food, and at the same time they get fit, fill their muscles, and increase their boiler count.
Since people with less muscle have fewer boilers, they naturally need less fuel. Once you get a little more fuel, it is easy to accumulate and become a problem, that is, because you can't consume it, it will turn into body fat, resulting in obesity. So, if you eat the same amount of food, people who are not muscular are more likely to gain weight, while people who are full and muscular are less likely to gain weight.
Have you eaten it.
Foods that can help resist cold
Have you eaten anything that warms you up?In fact, food will make people feel warm to some extent, but to different degrees. Therefore, many people will have the experience that they feel cold before entering the restaurant, and when they come out of the restaurant, they will feel warm.
This is because, whether it is protein, fat or carbohydrates, there is a bit of a thermal effect. However, it is the protein that has the highest thermal effect. 30% of the calories contained in protein are released as body heat, compared to 5% carbohydrates and even less fat.
Some foods provide more protein and make us feel warmer after a meal, such as meat, eggs, and especially lean beef and lamb. People will sweat all over after eating shabu mutton, and if they only eat shabu cabbage and shabu noodles, it is impossible to achieve the same warming effect. In fact, some of the best methods require people to eat more lean meat, and to some extent, they are also to take advantage of the heat dissipation effect of protein, which is a "waste of energy".
When anemic, the body's oxygen supply is insufficient, the biological oxidation efficiency decreases, and it will be more sensitive to cold. Therefore, iron-rich beef and lamb and animal offal are helpful in maintaining hemoglobin levels and fighting cold.
There are also foods that increase blood circulation, speed up the transport of oxygen and glucose, dissipate heat faster on the body's surface, and make the body feel warmer. Because there is not enough oxygen, the boiler cannot burn, and oxygen is transported by blood. For example, eating foods with spices, such as chili, pepper, cumin, green onions, ginger and garlic, etc., all have the effect of helping digestion and improving blood circulation, which is conducive to improving the body's heat production and heat dissipation ability.
Also, when it's cold, people like to eat hot food. Since cold food constricts blood vessels in the gastrointestinal tract, it reduces the efficiency of food digestion and absorption. Although healthy people can slowly warm up the temperature of food to body temperature, it takes time and energy after all, and the cold stimulus itself can make some people's stomach and intestines feel uncomfortable. Therefore, it is indeed a more reliable thing to eat some hot food when it is cold.
Thyroxine is like the control center of a heating plant, and if the plant decides to increase its capacity, the heating effect will naturally be greatly enhanced. When there is iodine deficiency, malnutrition, or long-term excessive fatigue, it may cause hypothyroidism, and the human body will be particularly sensitive to cold.
Some foods can promote digestion and absorption, so that the body can absorb more nutrients from the same food, which of course will help produce more energy. Other foods contain too many anti-nutritional factors, which hinder the utilization of nutrients for people with poor digestion and make people more afraid of cold.
The speed at which food is digested and absorbed is itself related to temperature. When the temperature is lowered, the fat in the animal's food will coagulate, and it will be more difficult to emulsify it and absorb it. At the same time, cold starchy foods will also increase the proportion of slow-digesting starch and resistant starch. Some studies have even found that even glucose water that does not need to be digested will be absorbed more slowly when drunk cold.
It can be seen that people who are weak and afraid of cold and have indigestion are more suitable for eating hot food. Of course, if the body is strong and the digestion is excellent, you don't have to worry too much about the temperature of the food.
In short, high-calorie foods may not make people warm, so don't use "fear of cold" as an excuse to eat high-sugar sweets and high-fat snacks. However, eating enough of the total calories of food, adding foods rich in protein and micronutrients, and using spices that promote digestion and blood circulation can indeed make you feel warmer.
*:Fan Zhihong, Professor, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Popular Science China.