Re: CHAT: Temperature /Food and Drink

On 4 August, Roger Mills wrote:

> >Well, this is actually not a concultural, but a real tactic to fight
heat.
> It
> >can be summed up as: When it's hot, eat hot!
>
> It's true!!
I agree!  And it is hot here in Israel:
I've been "enjoying",  when the heat stress factors are taken into
account, the equivalent of 47 C! And no, I don't have air-conditioning
in my home!  ( I do at work, though! I may work a lot of overtime
in the coming month!  ;-)  )

>
> I've seen Indonesians wolfing down hot peppers, sprinkled with lime juice
> which they claim increases the heat.
> It's possible that volatiles in Capsicum peppers do something.  Or perhaps
> the pain in the mouth makes one ignore the discomfort of ambient heat and
> humidity.

    While not negating the "torture" theory  (  ;-)  ), I wouldn't be
suprised if part of the effect didn't also involve increasing the sweating,
which should add to the cooling .
    Anyhow, the accepted wisdom in my household for dealing with
"dragon-mouth" (= breathing flames ;-)  ) is to eat bread. I can personally
vouch for the effectiveness of this: for lunch, I often eat falafel, which I
precede by eating hot peppers  ("to get the juices flowing" ;-)  ).  Taking
a bite of the pita-bread, IME, eliminates the need to call the
fire department!  :-)


Dan Sulani
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