The Meat Sweats

Happy Thanksgiving!

Do you ever get hot after eating Thanksgiving dinner?

Did you know that protein, fats and carbohydrates have different thermic effects on our bodies, meaning they can heat our bodies up differently. This means that it takes more calories to processes certain types of foods which creates more heat inside your body. A calorie simply means a unit of energy aka heat.

Protein has the largest thermic effect, which explains the "meat sweats" many people have after eating a ton of protein on Thanksgiving. Upwards of 35% of the calories in protein are directly used to break it down and process it metabolically. So if you eat 100 calories from protein your body is actually only getting 65 of those calories because the other 35 are burned during processing, which makes you hot.

The thermic effect also explains why calories from protein are not equal to calories from carbohydrates or fat. Calorie counters don't take this into effect either.

Many people who are always cold should consider eating more protein especially in the winter because it will potentially help increase their body temperature!