Humans don't like chilli pepper. It literally burns our mouth. We enjoy the burning feeling in small quantities.
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Why do some humans love chili peppers?
101–110 of 184 posts
Re: Why do some humans love chili peppers?
#102These two papers give a much better answer than this blog: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S138904172... (why do humans increase their chili consumption) and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042654/ (antibacterial + disease-alleviating properties of capsaicin). Besides the fact that capsaicin has antibacterial effects and exerts indirect disease-alleviating effects during bacterial infe…
Living in Japan, it’s very hard to find properly spicy food or nice chilli sauces. I’ve resorted to just eating plain cut chilli. A while back, I experimented with not adding more spices than was already provided in my meals. No pepper, no chilli. After about a month, I started experiencing new tastes and flavours from foods I’ve always ate. It was amazing.
But I craved that endorphin high from spicy foods and have fallen back to my old ways.
Re: Why do some humans love chili peppers?
#103Well, at least for me, it is simple: a controlled pain sensation, in low quantities, giving a sense of excitement (even thinking about it gives me a tingling sensation and makes my mouth full of saliva), in higher - followed by a flood of endorphins. It is essentially getting high on locally-produced painkillers. From anecdata, chili-loving is strongly correlated with sensation seeking, or rather: the balance between…
Do people really feel a flood of endorphins? Growing up in a culture full of chili, I've had to endure my fair share of extra spicy food and never enjoyed it. It leaves me with nothing but a nasty burn in my mouth and an inability to taste anything for some time.
Re: Why do some humans love chili peppers?
#104It's not some intellectual matter to dissect. It's not that spicy food hurts less or tests better to me than to others but that I love the pain and the challenge and how far I can push my tolerance.
The "not minding the pain" aspect.
My limit is when it gets so spicy you spend the next 8-12 hours in pain like you drank acid. Find yourself a nice old thai place and make a special request "make me cry" and they will oblige.
All good things hurt at some point.
Re: Why do some humans love chili peppers?
#105Re: Why do some humans love chili peppers?
#106Is there some secret trick to avoid trouble the day after?
Dairy. Milk contains a protein called casein, which breaks down capsaicin.
Re: Why do some humans love chili peppers?
#107I’ve always enjoyed the chili tasting interviews produced by Chili Klaus: https://youtube.com/c/ChiliKlausDK/videos There’s such a lovely range of human reactions to eating those little spicy-fruity peppers.
I really enjoy the Hot Ones series where celebrities are interviewed while eating extremely hot wings. It helps that the interviewer and his researchers actually take the interview side very seriously as well.
Re: Why do some humans love chili peppers?
#108No explanation in article. Popular theories: - capsaicin is anti microbial - used as a cultural marker of toughness Personally I like the taste but also the mild high I get. Interesting genre of article. It's like usual content-free content-marketing but it must have taken some work at least. Bland, doesn't answer question it purports to, fairly generic. But requires research. Wonder if AI generated.
> Personally I like the taste but also the mild high I get
I make a sweet curry that guests have called "the stealth chicken" because the heat grows slowly, and people don't realize it is actually pretty brutally spicy until they are into the second helping (BTW - I do warn people about it). It takes 15-20 minutes to cool off, and even people who don't like spicy end up downing a plate or three (if they like the flavor of curry). Usually dinners with this dish are a blast because everyone is laughing at everything, no matter how unfunny. I've always wondered if it was endorphin that was enhancing the experience.
Re: Why do some humans love chili peppers?
#109No explanation in article. Popular theories: - capsaicin is anti microbial - used as a cultural marker of toughness Personally I like the taste but also the mild high I get. Interesting genre of article. It's like usual content-free content-marketing but it must have taken some work at least. Bland, doesn't answer question it purports to, fairly generic. But requires research. Wonder if AI generated.
> Personally I like the taste but also the mild high I get I make a sweet curry that guests have called "the stealth chicken" because the heat grows slowly, and people don't realize it is actually pretty brutally spicy until they are into the second helping (BTW - I do warn people about it). It takes 15-20 minutes to cool off, and even people who don't like spicy end up downing a plate or three (if they like the flav…
Go on, what's the recipe? :D
Re: Why do some humans love chili peppers?
#110These two papers give a much better answer than this blog: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S138904172... (why do humans increase their chili consumption) and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042654/ (antibacterial + disease-alleviating properties of capsaicin). Besides the fact that capsaicin has antibacterial effects and exerts indirect disease-alleviating effects during bacterial infe…
I’ve gotten to a point where I prefer to drink a hot spicy soup in a cup over many things. If I drink coffee, it also always burning hot with a solid mix of cream, sugar and cinnamon. One of the things it helps me achieve is a small warmth that also helps me sleep. I don’t even resort to hot sauce for the broths anymore, just cutting up one or two small chili peppers makes the soup hotter. The soups are becoming a re…
Drinking regularly drinks that are too hot significantly increases the risk of throat cancer. I can't find the paper anymore that I read few years ago, but they did check various cultures where drinking very hot tea is traditional, controlled for other factors and the results were not nice. IIRC the threshold where risk became significantly higher was around 70-75 degrees celzius.
I mean think about it - around 60 degrees C proteins are getting hammered in all cells. Doing frequent small burns in cells lining your throat damages them (also teeth), make it a habit and bad things will eventually happen. There wasn't enough time to develop protection when we moved from hunters and gatherers.
That your specific brain interprets this as somehow pleasant isn't telling much, some people get off on extremely painful experiences that nobody normal considers a good idea.