When eating spicy food, why does your tongue burn less when u breathe in from your mouth and burn more when you breathe out?
In: Biology
Cooler air reduces your ability to taste similar to how colder drinks have less flavor to them. The air from inside you is warmer than outside you.
I think it’s something to do with tastebuds working better when moist, so dryer air on the way in make them work less well, and moist air on the way out makes them work, and burn, better.
The chemicals in spicy food stimulate the same nerve cells that sense heat. This makes your brain feel like your tongue is literally burning, even though there is no temperature increase. When you inhale through your mouth, you draw in cooler, dry air. This cooler dryer air evaporates some of your saliva, which cools down your tongue, activating the nerves that feel cold. Your brain now gets signals that your tongue is both hot AND cold, which it combines into a “less hot” feeling. When you exhale, you exhale warm damp air, which does not evaporate your saliva and so does not cool down your tongue.
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