Ever get the munchies when the temperature drops and wonder why you’re suddenly so hungry? Well, neuroscientists at Scripps Research have finally uncovered some answers.
The team found specific brain pathways that make us mammals crave more Food when it’s nippy out.
When it gets chilly, mammals naturally burn more calories in order to stay warm. This makes them feel hungrier, although the exact mechanism behind “how” was still puzzling.
The researchers have now zeroed in on a cluster of brain cells in mice that behave like a hunger “on and off” switch when it’s cold. This discovery might pave the way for new treatments centered around metabolism and losing weight.
“This is a fundamental adaptive mechanism in mammals, and targeting it with future treatments might allow the enhancement of the metabolic benefits of cold or other forms of fat burning,” said Dr. Li Ye, the study’s senior author.
It is well-known that we burn more calories just trying to keep warm when it’s chilly out, which is why practices like “cold therapy”– or cold water immersion– are gaining traction for weight loss and increasing metabolic health.
But here’s the twist: back in the day, our bodies were not really aiming for us to shed pounds. When food was hard to come by, becoming too thin could have been fatal.
That’s why when we are cold– or dieting or working out– we suddenly feel hungry for a snack to counteract any weight loss.
Scientists are now diving into the brain’s inner workings to figure out why we get that hunger spike.
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First off, when the temperature took a dive from 73°F to 39°F, the mice didn’t jump straight into food hunting. They hung around for about six hours before getting the munchies. This suggests that their hunger was not an explicit reaction to the dropping temperatures.
Diving deeper, the team used advanced imaging to see which parts of the brain lit up when it was cold versus when it was warm. They discovered that, in colder temps, a brain region known as the thalamus was buzzing with activity.
Then, the researchers pinpointed a special group of Neurons in the thalamus called the Xiphoid Nucleus. These neurons went into overdrive when it was cold, especially right before the mice started sniffing around for some food.
And if there wasn’t much food around when the temperatures dropped, the xiphoid nucleus was even busier. It seems like these neurons were more concerned about the energy running low from the cold rather than just the cold temps themselves.
After the team activated the neurons, the mice became hungrier. Then, if the researchers blocked the neurons, the hunger decreased. The catch was that this only worked in colder environments, meaning there is a different cold-related trigger that influences appetite.
The team also realized that these xiphoid nucleus neurons communicate with another brain area: the nucleus accumbens. This spot is extremely important because it helps regulate behavior based on rewards, such as eating.
As for how this could impact weight loss, Ye claimed that if we can block the hunger induced by feeling chilly, then just being cold may help people lose weight more effectively.
“One of our key goals now is to figure out how to decouple the appetite increase from the energy-expenditure increase. We also want to find out if this cold-induced appetite-increase mechanism is part of a broader mechanism the body uses to compensate for extra energy expenditure, for example, after exercise,” Ye concluded.
To read the study’s complete findings, which have since been published in Nature, visit the link here.
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