Certain snacks are more likely to cause winter weight gain, study suggests

Dietary fats may influence how our bodies respond to the passing of the seasons

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Snacking on foods high in saturated fat this winter could trick your body into storing more fat, a recent study has found.

Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) found that if we eat more saturated fat – found in red meat, butter, cake, pies and other buttery baked goods – a protein called PER2 tells the body that it’s summer and that we should store more energy to prepare for the winter months.

But if we eat more unsaturated fat – the type found in nuts, seeds, oily fish and vegetable oils – PER2 makes the body believe it’s winter, and that we should burn the energy we eat.