Things that warm you up in winter

Chillies, pepper and exercise all speed up your metabolism, layers of clothing and blankets shield you from the cold and trap body heat. You loose a lot of your body heat through your head, hands and feet so protect them. Warm food firstly warms up your tummy which feels good and then it fuels your metabolism, warm drinks like hot chocolate, soups, eggnog and mulled wine also warm you from the inside but it is more temporary than food and the most effective way is shared body warmth. Happiness also works as it is a state of mind that puts your mind somewhere warm and fuzzy so you will feel warmer when you are happy most people attribute this to the the distracted state of mind.



Something that makes the cold worse is huddling next to the heater or fire, because of the way your senses work, they will acclimatise to the change in ambient temperature over a period of days but the moment you sit by a heater your metabolism does not need to work as hard to keep you worm, and your body then does not need to acclimatise to the cold. Every time its cold or you walk away from the heat you feel the cold worse.



Alcohol is another problem you feel warmer when you have had a few because it lowers your body temperature which means there is less of a difference in temperature for you to feel.



As you get older your metabolism does not cope as well and you will feel the cold more and more. It was nice being a kid when your metabolism worked overtime, and you did not feel the cold as much.



The heater or fireplace is not the problem, it is sitting to close to it that causes the problems using a heater of fireplace to warm up your environment is perfectly acceptable, it just adds to global warming, which in winter sounds like a good thing.



Chillies can be added to almost any meal and you don’t have to add very much to get the affect, but not everyone likes chillies or pepper. Growing chillies is easy and I go into the subject of how to grow chillies in my Grow Your Own Food workshops.