August 18, 2010

• Can Air Conditioning Make You Fat?

  
  This summer has been hot, 103 this week and more on the horizon.Now after running my air conditioning on “frigid” for the past three weeks I hear the unfathomable…having your air conditioner running during those hot summer days helps keep you cool and comfortable, but it can also make you fat!

  A review of data on possible causes of obesity states that it just may be true.
  How?

  Modern technologies — such as air conditioning and heating — help keep us in “the thermo-neutral zone,” a temperature range where we do not have to regulate our body temperature.

  When our bodies are above or below this zone, we increase the amount of energy we spend, which “decreases energy stores,” such as fat.

  This is just one of many potential factors that could be driving America’s obesity epidemic, according David Allison, director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Center at the University of Alabama in Birmingham who was probably reporting from his air conditioned lab.

  Besides the usual suspects such as fast food and a lack of exercise, he argues that any number of things could be making the problem worse, such as sleep deprivation, taking certain medications, or even quitting smoking — and snacking instead. Yikes he has me pegged.

  • 3:34 pm
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