Over the weekend I undertook an experiment on myself. Its not up there with the guys who won a Nobel prize for ingesting gut bacteria, but I will accept a cheque if there is spare Nobel money going around.
First, I ate some lovely hot soup. Yum, yum. Down it went, and I felt very warm inside.
Later, I drank a glass of whisky. Neat, room temperature. Whisky isn’t my drink, but I did what I had to do for science, so in a couple of gulps down it went. Once again, that nice warm feeling of it trickling down into my stomach.
The third task in the experiment was to drink some chili chocolate. Initially it was too hot but soon it had cooled down quite a bit, and for the third time I got that same very warm feeling as it went down into my innards.
So, I ingested three very different substances - one room temperature, one warm-hot and one hot. They each gave me what seemed like an identical feeling of internal warmth of perhaps comparable duration, allowing for the different quantities consumed.
My question is why would I perceive the three substances as being indistinguishable from each other? Are they pressing the same internal buttons?
And another question - if it was a really cold day, I’d assume you would opt for soup to warm you up, but given the apparent effects, could I get equally warm from whisky or a chili concoction, or am I just fooling myself [its wont be the first time].
There are three different mechanisms going on, although some of the same buttons may be pushed.
Soup. Hot soup triggers thermoreceptors in the esophagus and stomach, responding directly to the temperature of the substance.
Whiskey. A couple of different things may cause a sensation of heat. For one thing, alchohol is a vasodilator. Blood is redistributed to the skin, triggering thermoreceptors there and making you feel warm. Internally, the liver has to metabolize and detoxify the alcohol, which produces heat and may contribute to a warm feeling internally.
Chili. The capsaicin in chili triggers the same thermoreceptors as heat does, making you feel heat when there is actually no additional heat there.
Hot soup will actually introduce more heat to your body and warm you. Paradoxically, alcohol may actually cool you off since it will produce increased blood flow to the skin, where it will be lost to the air, and sweating, which will cool you through evaporation. Chili could also cause cooling through sweating.
Alcohol is particularly troublesome in cold weather since as a vasodilator it will restrict blood flow to your extremities, which your body may be already doing in response to the cold. Your thermal regulatory system is trying to keep your core warm, and the alcohol can exacerbate that process. It can lead to frostbite and hypothermia.