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Many articles claim that some foods will lower your body temperature, or prevent you overheating, and others will warm your body temperature.

Some of the temperature-lowering claims are due to the water content or promotion of sweating. Some of the body heating claims attribute it to calorific content or additional work required to digest it.

Examples:

  • Bold Sky

    • Cooling foods, include watermelon, honeydew, cucumber, mint, radish, sesame, fennel seeds, coconut water, pomegranate, poppy seeds, fenugreek seeds, cold milk.

  • Beauty Heath Tips, India:

    • Cooling foods include: Cardamom, peaches, apricot, buttermilk, watermelon, coconut water, honey dew, mint, cucumber, radish, fennel seeds, fenugreek seed, water, cold milk.

  • Natural News

    • Cooling foods include: watermelon, spicy foods, leafy vegetables.

    • Warming foods include: Ice cream, whole grains, ginger.

Do eating certain foods have an effect of the human body temperature?

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    My understanding is that the yin and yang don't heat the body in the sense of thermometers, but in some non-physical sense. That is outside of science. On the other hand, it may have some material effect on the body (e.g. curing a specific disease) which can be tested, but you don't provide a specific claim here. Find a particular notable claim and quote it here, so we can re-open this.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Sep 5, 2015 at 13:19
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    Even now the claim is too broad. Foods high in water content help prevent dehydration, if you are low on water. High and low temperature foods have a direct effect on your body's average temperature. One of the articles suggested eating seeds with a glass of water, which might be a confounding variable. It would be good to choose just one food with limited water content eating at room temperature (e.g. mint or fenugreek seeds) and ask about that.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Sep 5, 2015 at 14:18
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    Certainly some foods can alter body temperature. For instance, if you were to visit my house and eat some of my delicious cyanide soup, your body temperature would gradually decrease to about 23 C or so...
    – Nate Eldredge
    Sep 5, 2015 at 17:30
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    @NateEldredge I will have your cyanide soup when you pry it from my cold dead fingers... wait..
    – Tom Mickey
    Sep 5, 2015 at 18:31
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    @TomMickey No, you don't want his cyanide soup! Who knows what he put in there? He says it's homemade, but I bet he just gets it from a can.
    – Reinstate Monica -- notmaynard
    Sep 5, 2015 at 21:51

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Per Klaas R Westerterp in 2004, "diet induced thermogenesis (DIT) can be defined as the increase in energy expenditure above basal fasting level divided by the energy content of the food ingested and is commonly expressed as a percentage. It is, with basal metabolic rate and activity induced thermogenesis, one of the three components of daily energy expenditure."

Postprandial thermogenesis was increased 100% on a high-protein/low-fat diet versus a high-carbohydrate/low-fat diet in healthy subjects. The DIT increases body temperature, which may be translated into satiety feelings. In conclusion, the main determinants of diet-induced thermogenesis are the energy content and the protein-and alcohol fraction of the diet. Protein plays a key role in body weight regulation through satiety related to diet-induced thermogenesis.

Per Kelly G.S. in 2007, "Oral temperatures are influenced by drinking, chewing, smoking, and breathing with the mouth open. Cold drinks or food reduce oral temperatures; hot drinks, hot food, chewing, and smoking raise oral temperatures."

"Temperature is increased after eating or drinking anything with calories. Caloric restriction, as for a weight-loss diet, reduces overall body temperature. Drinking alcohol reduces the amount of daily change, slightly lowering daytime temperatures and noticeably raising nighttime temperatures."

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