Courses
Courses for Kids
Free study material
Offline Centres
More
Store Icon
Store

How does digestion affect body temperature?

seo-qna
SearchIcon
Answer
VerifiedVerified
430.5k+ views
Hint: Based on the outside environment, our level of exercise and whether we eat and drink, the body temperature changes during the day. Due to emotional and psychological responses, disease and a number of other causes, temperature may vary.

Complete answer:
Generally, eating leads to a small rise in body temperature, as our metabolic rate rises to allow food to be digested. As the chemical responses of the digestive process take place inside your body, our temperature will rise. The heat that induces a small rise in body temperature is what generates these chemical reactions.
The digestion of food is a hydrolytic, exothermic, chemical reaction that in the digestive tract releases heat. The body tries to resist the increase in the central body temperature by instigating heat leakage to the atmospheric atmosphere and then passes the heat to the body and wants to raise the body temperature.
When hot, by heat transfer to body tissues, the meal itself may want to increase the body temperature. However because the human body has a means to maintain its core temperature, by sweating and evaporation, convection currents, conduction and radiation, the heat gets lost to the external atmosphere. The temperature of the body may increase marginally, but under these conditions, it will remain within the natural range for a healthy body indefinitely.
Cellular metabolism is also improved by food consumption. The hydrolytic breakdown of ATP by the enzyme known as ATPpase is normally needed by chemical reactions in the body. ATP is a weak bound high-energy molecule that is quickly split to release heat, and is then used as activation energy to kickstart and spread biochemical events aimed at achieving the body's desired end goals. Part of the energy emanating from ATP is not collected for use and is wasted as heat to generate useful work. Eventually, the heat is dissipated from the body until it has enough time to increase the temperature of the heart.

Note: Metabolism is improved by spices in food. Although some advocate a hydrolytic, macromolecular mechanism known as autophagy, which creates heat, others only give a false impression of producing heat. They imitate heat through stimulating heat receptors directly in the body, or they bring heat to the skin where most thermoreceptors are located by routing blood by vasodilation and the opening of precapillary shunts. The heat in the blood is then perceived as an increase in the temperature of the body, and corrective steps are taken to get rid of the perceived heat from the body into the atmosphere.