Aphorism of the month - March 2026
I.15
Αἱ κοιλίαι χειμῶνος καὶ ἦρος θερμόταται φύσει καὶ ὕπνοι μακρότατοι. ἐν ταύτῃσιν οὖν τῇσιν ὥρῃσιν καὶ τὰ προσάρματα πλείω δοτέον. καὶ γὰρ τὸ ἔμφυτον θερμὸν πλεῖον ἔχουσι, τροφῆς οὖν πλείονος δέονται. σημεῖον αἱ ἡλικίαι καὶ ἀθληταί.
The gastric cavity is naturally hottest, and sleep longest, in winter and spring. In these seasons, then, more food should be given. For indeed there is more innate heat, and therefore a greater need of nourishment. A sign of this is provided by different times of life and by athletes.
This aphorism parallels the observation made annually in lifestyle magazines to this day, namely that we sleep longer and eat more during the darker seasons than during times when the days are longer. Galen offers the same explanation for the greater need for sleep mentioned by Hippocrates as we find in current texts on this topic: it is due to the long dark nights.
However, Hippocrates explains our increased appetite during the cooler seasons with a concept from ancient medicine that is less common in modern magazines: it is, specifically, the innate heat of living beings which demands more food for the body in cold temperatures than in hot ones. Galen elaborates this view with reference to Aristotle, according to whom the innate heat retreats in response to the coldness of the external environment, just as the opposite is true in summer. Hippocrates’ mention of “times of life” (ἡλικίαι) should be understood, here, in the context of “youth”. Galen explains this passage by saying that young people (παῖδες) have greater innate heat as a result of their physical development while athletes have it as a result of their training, and consequently both have greater appetite.
In his detailed commentary on this aphorism, Galen also mentions an objection to this view: since people sweat less in winter, the body needs less food, not more. Galen refutes this by pointing out that living beings do sweat in winter, namely through channels that remain hidden from sensory perception. According to Galen, the only decisive factor in this debate is the function of the innate heat, which shapes living beings from the earliest age, allowing them to grow and flourish.