Be warned, as this might make you want to spit out your coffee, but that hot drink you're sipping¹ on could actually be making you colder.

友情提醒：也许这篇文章可能让你有喷咖啡的冲动，不过你喷的这杯热饮可能实际上喝了以后让你觉得更冷哦。

And that's not the only thing making it hard to stay warm as the temperatures continue to drop around you. You're going to need all the advice you can get in order to stay toasty this winter. Although you might already know that a space heater is a great way to heat up a room, or that Canadian Goose is apparently² the jacket of 2013, there are other important warming techniques you might be getting wrong.

在周围持续降温的时候，喝热饮不是唯一一件不能让你保暖的方法。为了抵御这个寒冬，你们会需要以下这些建议的。虽然你已经知道暖气是让房间升温的好办法，或者说“加拿大鹅”显然是2013年度抗寒服，还有其他一些你误认为能保暖的好方法。

Below are 6 things that'll help you avoid having to do this all winter...

以下就是6件误区就是在提醒你：别再在这个冬天犯错误啦……

1. You might warm up by eating gingerbread cookies.

吃姜饼可能会暖和起来哦。

The root herb ginger³ is a centuries-old medicinal supplement used to soothe⁴ colds, motion sickness and other stomach problems. And according to lore⁵, it also "gets the blood flowing" and softens⁶ cold hearts, metaphorically⁷, at least. One study conducted on rats showed that ginger, even as an ingredient in food, has the ability to raise body temperatures. There's a reason we tend to associate gingerbread with the cold of wintertime -- people traditionally believed the herb to stimulate⁸ the body and increase blood circulation.

根草姜是几个世纪以来一种古老的，抵御寒冷的手段，治疗晕动病还有其他胃部的疾病。根据这个只是，它也能“让血液流动起来”，甚至是作为食物中的一味原料，它都可以让体温上升。这就是为什么我们把姜饼和冬天的寒冷联想到一起——人们传统意义上都相信，这种药草能刺激身体和加速血液循环。

2. Loneliness can lower your body temperature.

孤独会降低你的体温

It's no fun to be ignored, as anyone who's attended middle school can attest⁹, but a pair of researchers at the University of Toronto say that lack of social contact can lead to physical consequences. In other words, giving someone the "cold shoulder" can actually make them feel colder.

别笑！这可件大事，每个中学生都能证明，不过多伦多大学的一对学者声称，缺少社交会导致身体上的一些不适后果。换句话说，“冷待”别人的话会真的让他们的身体变冷。

In one study, participants were split into two groups, asked either to recall a situation in which they felt included or excluded. When later asked to estimate the room temperature, participants who had described social exclusion¹⁰ gave lower estimates. In another study, participants who were made to feel excluded in a virtual ball-tossing game expressed a stronger desire for warm food and drink afterward¹¹. So the next time your house seems drafty, call up a friend or family member.

在另一项研究里，参与者被分成两组，他们被要求回忆起自己受欢迎或被冷遇的场景。当后者被要求估计一下室内温度时，那些回忆被排斥在群体外的参与者给出的室内温度估算值较低。在另一项研究里，虚拟投球游戏的被孤立的参与者，会之后强烈要求提供热腾腾的食物和饮料。所以下次你觉得房子里冷冰冰的，邀请朋友或者家人过来吧。

3. Hot drinks might actually cool you off.

喝热饮实际上可能会让你变冷。

When having a hot drink, nerve receptors in your tongue (specifically the TRPV1 Receptor) signal to the rest of your body that something "hot" is coming and you need to start sweating. Neuroscientist Peter McNaughton of the University of Cambridge told NPR that, "The hot drink somehow has an effect on your systemic cooling mechanisms¹², which exceeds its actual effect in terms of heating your body." For the sweat to really cool you off, it needs to evaporate -- if it just dampens your clothes or drips off, it won't do you any favors.

当喝热饮的时候，你舌头上的神经感受器（尤其是TRPV1感受器）会向你身体的其他部位发出信号：“热流”来了，你要准备好出汗了。剑桥大学的神经系统学家彼得·麦克诺顿告诉美国国家公共之声，“热饮会以某种方式影响你系统的冷却机制，会在加热身体的时候起到反作用。”发汗的时候为了让你凉下来，汗液需要蒸发——如果只是让你的衣服变潮，或者滴下来的话，实际上是不起任何作用的。

On the opposite end, apparently consuming too much of a cold drink can actually warm you up as it causes your blood vessels¹³ to tighten¹⁴.

另一方面，显然和很多冷饮反而能让你暖和起来，因为它会让你的血管收缩起来。

4. You don't catch a cold because of cold weather.

你会不会因为天气变冷而感冒

Exposure to lower temperatures doesn't give you a cold by itself. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services there is, "no experimental evidence that exposure to cold temperatures increases the chances that you will get a cold." Instead, the rise in sickness and colds in the winter months is typically linked to people spending more time indoors, which allows germs to transfer between people more easily.

暴露在低温环境里不会让你自身变冷。根据美国卫生人类服务部，“没有实验证明暴露在寒冷环境里会增加你感冒的几率。”反而，在冬天月份里生病和感冒的几率上升，显然和人们总是呆在室内有关，呆在室内会让彼此间细菌传染变得更容易。

5. Wearing white might actually be the warmest color.

穿白色实际上最能保暖

Black clothing absorbs heat from the sun and white clothing reflects it, but the common wisdom that white should be worn in summer and darker clothes in winter might need to be rethought. White's function as a reflector also appears to apply to body heat, meaning that wearing it may trap your natural heat close to your body in looser fitting clothes, like a jacket. Dark clothing, meanwhile, may be less likely to trap your body heat in.

黑色的衣服会吸收太阳的热量，而白色衣服会发射，但是这个“夏天穿白，冬天穿黑”的公共常识需要反思一下了。白色的反射功能也同样适用于身体热量，也就是说，穿白衣服可能会让诱使你的体温让你的衣服变得宽宽松松，比如夹克。深色衣服，与此同时，很有可能让你的衣服变得更贴身。

6. The cold weather can help you lose weight.

寒冷的天气能帮你瘦下来！

Tried all this and still shivering? Hey, at least you're losing weight! In cold temperatures the body works harder to warm itself up, not only burning more calories while working out but activating¹⁵ brown fat, which burns them more efficiently¹⁶ than white fat. Some people apparently believe that punishing themselves with icy-cold temperatures can help them lose more weight...

试了以上所有方法但还是冷的发抖吗？嗨，至少你瘦了呀！在低温环境，身体机能会更努力地运作让你暖和起来，不仅仅会燃烧卡路里，还会让褐色脂肪活动起来，褐色脂肪的燃烧比白色脂肪更有效。有人显然相信：把自己扔到极致寒冷的环境里的这种自虐能帮助他们瘦下来……

But you've still got to work for it.

不过同志尚需努力哦。