Reader’s Digest: 5 Weird Things That Happen to Your Body in the Winter.

Dry, cracked skin in the cold months is fairly common but have do you know about snow blindness and winter-related wrinkles?

We all have plenty of white fat—the lumpy kind that just sits there looking bad (and making you feel bad). But there’s another kind—brown fat—and it’s much more active. It burns calories and helps you stay warm when it’s cold. According to Robert Segal, MD, co-founder of LabFinder.com, our brown fat levels can increase in winter, probably a built-in feature to help keep us warm. You can nudge up levels of brown fat by exercising in colder temperatures, says Dr. Segal. There’s also an indication that keeping your melatonin levels high by sleeping well and avoiding nighttime exposure to blue light boosts brown fat. Another trick, he says, is eating apples with the skin on: The ursolic acid in the peel increases brown fat, research suggests.

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