Effect of drink temperature and capsiate to the subjective sensation of body and ambient temperature during cold exposure

Abstract

Pre‐exercise warm‐up facilitates exercise performance by raising the muscle temperature. Since a declining muscle temperature results in a deterioration of exercise performance, warming up is thus especially important in a cold environment. This study investigated whether the drink temperature and capsiate, which is an ingredient of red pepper without a hot taste, ingested before warming up could improve the effect of warm‐up exercise. Five healthy males were exposed to 10oC ambient temperature with winter clothes for 30 min in a sitting position. Thereafter, the subjects ingested 200 mL of one of the following drinks; 10 oC flavored water (W10), 60oC flavored water (W60), 10oC with capsiate (C10) and 60oC with capsiate (C60) in random order with a crossover design. The subjective sensations of the body and the ambient temperature were measured with a visual analog scale for 30 min after ingestion. The sensation of body temperature after ingestion was higher after consuming drinks at 60oC than 10oC. There was no difference in the sensation to the temperature of drinks between W60 and C60, however the sensation of body temperature immediately after ingestion was significantly higher for C60 than W60 and tended to remain higher for C60 thereafter. The sensation to ambient temperature after ingestion was also higher for 60oC than 10oC and while there was no statistical significance it tended to be higher for C60 than W60 towards the end of the trial. These results suggest that the sensations of the body and the ambient temperature are higher after ingesting a hot drink than a cold drink and capsiate may effectively induce thermal sensations.