Why do we get ‘the meat sweats’?

Asked by: Rhiannon Welsby, Colchester

There isn’t much hard research specifically into whether meat makes you sweat, but one possibility is the ‘thermic effect’ of protein. We digest protein less efficiently, and for every 100 calories of meat we eat, 20 to 35 calories are wasted as heat, compared with 5 to 15 calories for fat or carbohydrate. The sweating may be necessary to flush away that waste heat.

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