Freakonomics

So, this week is my last week "off" before the real marathon training starts next week. Did a nice, easy 5 miles in about 38 minutes this morning. You know it's summer though, because it was already hot at 6 a.m. and it was really hot by the time I was doing my cool down at 7. I really don't want to have to get up even earlier, but the heat may dictate it. Bummer.

I was thinking about the heat and food yesterday, which led me to a theory. I'm going to share it: Air-conditioning facilitates overeating. Here's the logical process that led there. Conventional wisdom says that the so-called obesity epidemic is a recent phenomenon and people like to blame it on soda and fast food. But McDonald's has been around since the 50's and Coke's much older. And other fast-food pre-dated McDonalds. I'd like to propose that the obesity epidemic is caused by air-conditioning. That's right; sounds wacky, doesn't it?

Think about it though. Air conditioning didn't really become national in scope until the 70s, which is when I believe most of the "experts" put the beginning of the so-called obesity epidemic. So, the timing's right. Also, think about the way AC affects how you eat. You're on your way home from work. You stand in the inferno of any 4-5-6 station (Why are these stations so much hotter than the stations of any other line?). You get off the train, walk a couple blocks home. It's 90 degrees out; you can actually see heat waves radiating up off Lexington Avenue. You climb the steps to your third floor walkup. Do you immediately go for the fridge? NO! You go for the water. In fact, for 30-60 minutes after you get home, the very thought of food makes you ill. (Or, if you have AC, at least until you cool off, the thought of food makes you ill.) So, my theory is that prior to AC, we simply ate less in the summer. This led to a lower average weight because cutting calories for a few months every single year over the course of a lifetime adds up to a lot less average weight. For you crazy liberals, from an evolutionary biologic perspective, the idea is that cool air triggers our survival instincts for winter and makes us able and desirous to eat more. The plethora of AC units leads to more cool air, which therefore leads to more eating.

At the same time, AC makes you less active. I remember being a kid and spending time at a friend's house. They didn't have AC. We never spent much time indoors there. It was simply too hot. Air flow and breezes that you got outdoors just don't happen as much indoors. We could have stayed in and played video games (indeed there were some days that we did) but for the most time, it was simply too stuffy to be inside. Of course, while outside, we ran around and played ball, tag and other kid games. It was fantastic. And we all had great tans!

So, that's my theory, AC allows you to eat more and let's you spend more time sedentary indoors. Thus, AC leads to fatness. (I don't mean to imply that a fatalistic causation here. Of course, you can choose to eat a lot or a little regardless of the AC. I'm just saying AC facilitates eating more.) We used to talk about losing the "winter fat." With AC it's always cool; so, fat's no longer tied to seasons, it just is.

I've titled this post Freakonmics in honor of the book that advocates looking at the world in a different way. Of course, the authors of that book would set up an experiment to test this theory before putting it up on the web. I don't have the skill-set to run an experiment, so I'm posting the theory for someone else with the skills to run the experiment. However, I do have a proposed experiment that some grad student could run with: In New York City many, many apartments either lack AC all together or have only semi-effective window units. Many newer units have full central AC. This mix isn't necessary strongly correlated to income levels, especially in Manhattan where the average residential unit now sales for over $1000/Square foot and the most important determinates of cost are size and location. One could control through regression analysis for income, etc, while teasing out the correlation (if there is one) between AC and weight through analysis of Manhattan data, I would guess. If anyone performs this, please let me know how it turns out!

So, even if this theory is correct, do I expect people to give up AC? Absolutely not!

1. AC makes us more comfortable than being hot. And in the US we are all about comfort, are we not?
   
2. We control our AC. Although we control how much soda we drink, we don't control what's in it. Same with fast-food. Easier to blame something controlled by someone else.
   
3. With soda or fast-food we get to blame a big company. Never mind that a big company is just a legal fiction for the employees who make it up. We feel better blaming impersonal Coca-Cola than interalizing blame for our own poor decisions.
   
4. Cutting the AC, just like cutting fat, requires self-discipline and self-control; again, this is America. We'd be much more likely to cut fat-intake (HA!) or exercise more (Double HA!) than cut AC usage.
   

That's pretty much the theory, AC facilitates fat. Someone other than I will have to evaluate it's validity, but consider it something to think about the next time you walk into a climate controlled resaurant and must have an appetiser because it's cooler inside and you're suddenly sooooooooo much hungrier. (Hmmm... I used to work and an Olive Garden in the Southeast, and the termostat was always set to cold. Coincidence?)