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Is it ever really too hot to eat?


Emily_R

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I always hear people talking about how they lose their appetite when it gets super hot outside. I however, have never found that to be true in myself -- I might lose my desire to cook, but not to eat. No doubt what I want to eat is different in the heat, but I still find myself craving all kinds of foods, and frequently hungry. Am I just an oddball? Or is this whole too-hot-to-eat thing a myth?

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Certainly when it's steamy I don't want to eat hot things, or heavy things, even if I'm not cooking them, and I'm eating in an air-conditioned environment. I want salads, and light pasta entrees, and maybe grilled proteins of some sort, with a lot of veggies on the side, and little starch other than breads. For desserts, I want fresh fruit with maybe some lightly whipped cream, or sour cream/creme fraiche mixed with brown sugar.

I do NOT want braises, potatoes, stews, roasts, cakes, baked pastas or the ilk. Those are for cooler weather.

So, I still want to eat, but not heavy things. If I have to cook, it'll likely be the easiest, lightest, coolest, most un-cooked things I can find.

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

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I agree, the cravings are just different- like a moose stew wouldn't sound good on a really hot day after a swim in the ocean. But, a peppermint sorbet would! Just back from Siciliy, when we asked the apt owners (of the apt we rented) how the oven works, he said, "It is 5 yrs old and no one has ever used it. It is too hot here." :)

The exception, for me, being drinks. It is lovely to drink something really hot when you are out in the summer.

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This must be a personal thing; once it hits about 30C/85F, I have no desire to eat, and can easily go for a couple of days on nothing but fluids. If the temperature keeps up, I do adjust, and start to eat again. But I stay pretty unenthusiastic.

These days, I'm spending most of my time in Northern Europe; ever since that started, I gained about 12kg/26lbs, since there are no prolonged, hot summers during which I practically fast at times.

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

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This must be a personal thing; once it hits about 30C/85F, I have no desire to eat, and can easily go for a couple of days on nothing but fluids. If the temperature keeps up, I do adjust, and start to eat again. But I stay pretty unenthusiastic.

That's exactly how it hits me too. I will eat eventually but with temps hitting 38 yesterday and a humidex of the mid 40's I lost my appetite completely. After about 5 hours in an A/C environment I was hungry enough to eat about 2 ounces of pork tenderloin and that was it for me.

There are 3 kinds of people in this world, those who are good at math and those who aren't.

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Heat by itself doesn't affect my appetite but heat plus physical activity affects it dramtically. I tend to have a difficult time satisfying my thirst on warm days when I have been active and I think my stomach becomes so full of liquid that it has little desire to add solids.

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I am one of those people. It has been around 100-112 here (heat index, not actual temperature,the actual temp. is around 100...no joke) and I don't want to cook, I don't want to eat, but the tummy growls so what do you do? Just eat as light as possible, and nothing cooked.

"I eat fat back, because bacon is too lean"

-overheard from a 105 year old man

"The only time to eat diet food is while waiting for the steak to cook" - Julia Child

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At a certain point (reached yesterday when the heat/humidity index was 125F) I get vaguely nauseated and most food sounds unappetizing. I do get hungry eventually but only want things like salted tomatoes or melon slices, cold light vegetables, maybe some cold fish or chicken.

But I think people's reactions to heat vary dramatically. My husband, who's of Greek background, rarely feels hot and even yesterday was eager to go out for a walk after dinner (we went out and I couldn't finish my food). All I wanted to do was put ice on the back of my neck and lie down in a cool dark room.

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I wish we had this here! It's been cool and drizzly over the last little while, haven't reached summer temperatures at all! Today is a cool and drizzly 15 C.

It doesn't get too hot to eat, because eventually I get hungry and I have to eat something. But the hotter it gets, the more non-existent my appetite. So I will pick and nibble at stuff like cheese and crackers, salads, fruit, and drink a lot of fluids that fill up my stomach. But it does get too hot to turn on the stove!

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Not really. If I ever have very little appetite I know I must be either sick or very very stressed out.

What surprises me is how much frying people in some tropical places do, for example all of the fried chicken stands all over Bangkok. Green papaya salad and ice in your beer I can understand, but fried chicken?

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I am one of those people. It has been around 100-112 here (heat index, not actual temperature,the actual temp. is around 100...no joke) and I don't want to cook, I don't want to eat, but the tummy growls so what do you do? Just eat as light as possible, and nothing cooked.

Ditto for the temps. It's been 115 heat index with 104 real temp here for longer than I can remember.

Like I said in another thread, I'm living on the sun.

And, I never would have said before that I have lost appetite, but I have now.

All I want is ice water, cold cold salad, ice water, sweet ice cold wine, ice water, and a cold cold Italian sandwich with fresh 'maters from the garden.

OH and the pie that I mentioned down in the dinner section. That is totally yummy.

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quantity of food consumed = calories spent

If you don't move around much because it's too hot, you eat less.

dcarch

If you don't move around because its too hot, you do burn fewer calories. However that may or may not relate to whether you still have an appetite / find food appealing (my original question), which itself may or may not relate to whether or not you go on to eat less! :-)

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