How to Actually Get Painful Pleasure From Spicy Foods
If you think spicy food is the best food , we don’t need to convince you of its miracles. But not everyone agrees. In addition to painful capsaicinoids, bloating from drinking too much water, and inevitable sweating, spicy foods can also cause discomfort. Here are some tips on how to enjoy the spice without bloating, sweating, or tears.
Why We Love Spicy Food
Pain is one of the reasons spicy foods are so damn good. The sensation of bleeding from the ears only heightens the experience, making curries, buffalo wings or salsa not only tasty, but aromatic as well .
What is the difference between taste and aroma? Taste depends on three factors : taste (sour, salty, or sweet), smell (the smell of food), and the trigeminal nerve — how your nerves sense the food. Capsaicin, the active ingredient in hot peppers, stimulates pain receptors, making you think food is hot. Of course, you are not really on fire; it is the perception of pain.
Capsaicin can also make you feel high . When pain receptors in your mouth are activated, they trigger your body to release dopamine and endorphins (you alsohavethese receptors in yourbuttocks ). This whole process explains why we love the experience of spicy food, not just the taste.The perceived pain of capsaicin adds to the flavor. Pain is not a mistake, it is a feature!
While this sensation enhances the experience, the discomfort can undermine your ability to enjoy food. You take a sip of water after each bite, and halfway through, you’re too bloated and unhappy to continue. You want a scent, but you want to really enjoy it.
This is similar to culinary Trick-22, but there are several ways to get the best of both worlds.
Develop your tolerance
This is not just a myth: you can actually develop a tolerance for spicy foods . When you repeatedly expose your pain receptors to capsaicin, they physically change, allowing you to intensify your spice game.
Discover magazine explains :
When exposed to capsaicin, these receptors open up, allowing sodium and calcium ions to pass through, causing the receptors to transmit this hot signal to the brain. However, with repeated short-term exposure to capsaicin, these calcium ions essentially close the receptor door behind them, preventing further transmission of pain signals. In the long term, with the repetition of spicy food, all the nerve endings begin to deteriorate, which scientists are still trying to understand.
However, nerves can grow back, which is good, but it also means you need a regular diet of spicy foods to maintain your tolerance, explains Discover.
The answer here is pretty simple: eat spicy foods more often. Serious Eats suggests adding spices gradually. Sprinkle the red pepper flakes over the soup. Add more black pepper to your meals. For those who really do not know how to do spicy, one medical practitioner even suggested adding a couple of drops of Tabasco to ketchup.
Use suitable coolants
Of course, when you increase your tolerance, you run the risk of losing some of the taste inherent in the trigeminal feeling. So if you want to keep your receptors intact (or you haven’t developed a tolerance yet), there are ways to deal with the heat rather than numb it. Namely, you want to find suitable coolants to relieve perceived pain. And it’s not water, soda, or juice. It looks more like milk.
Capsaicin is fat soluble but not water soluble. In an article published in Pharmacological Reviews , the scientists explained:
Because capsaicin is not water soluble, alcohols and other organic solvents are used to dissolve capsaicin in topical preparations and sprays. This fat solubility probably explains why an oral excess of capsaicin in food is not eliminated by drinking water, while a yogurt-based drink like lassi is able to remove vanilloid from the mouth.
At Thrillist, writer Michelle Noh tested 10 different coolants and found that whole milk and coconut water were also a couple of the most effective remedies.
Other foods that can put out a fire in your mouth are sugar, rice, sour cream, honey, and acids such as lime .
The reason we drink water instead of spicy food is because we drink a hell of a lot of it, which is ineffective. Change the coolant and you need less fluid to relieve pain.
Slow down
Finally, here’s an easy way to enjoy the heat: eat slowly. Or at least slower. As The Kitchn points out, the more capsaicin you eat, the stronger the reaction, so as you slow down, you maintain a “constant but tolerable amount” in your body.
The effects of spicy foods only last about 15 minutes, so keep this in mind if you’re snacking. Let the heat pass and then return to it.
As much as you love the sensation of capsaicin splashing on your tongue, the discomfort can take over and make it impossible to enjoy your meal. The trick is to find a balance between getting rid of delicious food and making yourself unhappy with too much spice. These tips should help you find that balance – just as much pain as you need to add to the taste, rather than getting rid of it entirely.
This story was originally published in 2017 and has been updated with new information on 02/25/2020.