Nutrition for a Cold Environment

In brief: Preventing hypothermia is crucial to those who work or spend recreation time in cold environments. Adequate energy from the correct proportion of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins can help. Vitamins and minerals are also necessary to prevent nutrition deficiencies and impaired function, but there is no evidence to suggest an increased requirement for them is attributable to cold exposure alone. High protein diets appear to be the worst choice for cold weather work; compared with diets high in carbohydrates or fats, high protein diets increase metabolic water requirements and reduce cold tolerance.