Your lips tingle and your tongue is set on fire. Your mucous membranes that protect your lungs from threats stir up a runny nose. Your blood vessels dilate, and your body feels like it's on fire. So you begin to sweat to help cool your body. Don't you just love spicy food?
你的嘴唇发麻，舌头像着了火。你的粘膜为了保护肺部免受威胁，引发流鼻涕。你的血管扩张，身体就像着火了一样。所以开始出汗来帮助你的身体降温。你不喜欢吃辣吗？
No matter how hot or cold your food is, the spice can still have you sweating. That's because spicy food isn't really hot in temperature, according to Fisher Science Education. Spiciness in our food is due to capsaicin, the substance that gives a pepper its "heat." A food's level of spiciness is measured based on the degree to which it provokes our reaction to the capsaicin — the measurement is called a Scoville Heat Unit （SHU）。 Bell peppers score a 0, banana peppers can be 900, jalape?os can get as high as 10,000. And the habanero? That's at 350,000. A scorpion sting and pepper spray can get into the two million range, and pure capsaicin is at 16 million SHU （per American Chemical Society）。
无论你的食物是热是冷，辛辣香料都会让你出汗。费雪科学教育表示，这是因为辛辣食物的温度并不高。我们食物中的辣味是由于辣椒素，这种物质赋予辣椒“热度”。一种食物的辣度，可以根据它激起我们对辣椒素反应的程度来衡量，这种测量方法被称为斯高维尔热度单位（SHU）。灯笼椒的辣度为0，香蕉辣椒是900斯高维尔，墨西哥辣椒可以高达10000斯高维尔。哈瓦那辣椒呢？也就是35万斯高维尔。蝎子蛰伤和辣椒喷雾可以达到200万斯高维尔，纯辣椒素的辣度是1600万斯高维尔（美国化学学会）。
According to The Conversation, our mouths have TRPV1 receptors that detect heat and prevent us from eating food that's too hot. Capsaicin triggers these TRPV1 receptors, which sends a signal to the brain that we're eating something dangerously hot. The brain responds by sending a burning sensation to that part of our mouth. Then the body responds the way it should to hot temperatures – by sweating. You might also notice that you feel a rush while eating spicy food. That's because your body misinterprets capsaicin as a threat, so it releases both dopamine and adrenaline as a response, according to Cooking Genie.
据The Conversation报道，我们的嘴里有TRPV1受体，可以检测热度，防止我们吃太热的食物。辣椒素会触发这些TRPV1受体，它会向大脑发送信号，告诉我们正在吃危险的过热食品。大脑的反应是将一种烧灼感发送到我们口腔的那部分。然后，身体对高温做出应有的反应——出汗。你可能还会注意到，吃辣的时候会有一种冲动。根据Cooking Genie网站的说法，这是因为你的身体将辣椒素误解为一种威胁，所以它会释放多巴胺和肾上腺素作为回应。
Capsaicin also isn't quite broken down in our digestive tract, so you'll feel that same burning when it's on its way out of your system, according to Everyday Chemistries. If the heat in your spicy food overwhelms you, avoid water, according to the American Chemical Society. That will add more flame to the fire. Instead, drink milk or eat ice cream or cottage cheese. The casein in these dairy products wraps around capsaicin and helps remove it from your tongue. And by the way, be aware that it's the membrane that holds a pepper's seeds, not the seeds themselves, that hold the heat.
据《每日化学》杂志报道，辣椒素在我们的消化道中也不会被完全分解，所以当它离开你的身体时，你会有同样的灼烧感。根据美国化学学会的建议，如果辛辣食物中的热度让你无法承受，不要喝水。那样只会火上浇油。相反，喝牛奶或吃冰淇淋或白软干酪。这些乳制品中的酪蛋白会包裹住辣椒素，帮助把辣椒素从舌头上清除。顺便说一下，要知道辣椒最辣的部分其实是辣椒种子的囊膜（胎座），而不是辣椒种子本身。