Can certain foods make you sweat more?
Bite into some suicide hot chicken wings and see how long it takes for those little beads of sweat to pop up on your forehead. The heat you're feeling comes from capsaicin -- a chemical found in the hot peppers used to make your wings.
Capsaicin stimulates nerve receptors in your mouth and essentially "tricks" your nervous system into thinking you're hot. Your body acts much like it does when you're outside in 90-degree heat. Your internal thermostat -- the hypothalamus in your brain -- sends out a signal to activate your sweat glands. Sweat reaches your skin and evaporates, taking the heat from your body with it.
If you live in a hot country as I do, Capsaicin is used to stimulate the appetite. When it is dog-day hot, you often don’t have much of an appetite. Adding a few chillies helps. My doctor tells me it is good for reducing cholesterol as well.
Hint: Don’t drink water if you just got a mouthful of chillies! That just spreads the heat around your mouth. If you have it, eat some plain rice. Cucumber works, too. It’s cooling and it will put out the fire!
Foods that are hot temperature-wise can also make you sweat. "Hot coffee, hot tea, and hot soups can sometimes make people sweat, even though their whole core body temperature isn't hot," says Dee Anna Glaser, MD, professor of dermatology at St. Louis University School of Medicine and president of the International Hyperhidrosis Society.
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