Dern, It's Hot

We're supposed to be in the upper-90's to low-hundreds most of the week here in St. Louis, and I confess there's little I want to do other than stay inside somewhere and chill. Feeling my sluggish tendencies this morning, I made myself go with Megan to our YMCA to do something physical for an hour, but that's about it (and even that was in air-conditioning).

I've been paying attention to the temperature and its effects a little more this summer, partly because I'm "feeling it" more than I used to (no longer living in Colorado Springs at 6,200-ft. makes the humidity that much stickier), and partly because the high temperatures have been in the news with Al Gore and company and their global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth, which I haven't seen (but want to).

Another of the reasons I've been thinking about the weather lately is this story from a few weeks ago on research postulating that one of the "drivers of the obesity tsunami" in America as "air conditioning, which establishes a comfortable temperature zone. In temperatures above this zone, people eat less. The rise in number of air-conditioned homes in the United States virtually mirrors the increase in the US obesity rate."

Experientially, I would certainly affirm the theory - I don't eat nearly as much when I'm hot, and I've wondered if maybe we ought to turn off the AC and turn on the fans for the sake of my waistline. My African friends in Uganda (where it's warm/hot year-round) only eat twice a day (and less when they do) because of the heat, and they are all quite thin and trim.

What do you think? Anything to this idea? If so, does it motivate you to do anything different in your lifestyle, or are you content as long as you're cool this summer?