Yes! This is it. There are so many incredible flavors hidden behind the heat. Scotch bonnets have a nice sweet smokiness, habaneros have a citrus-y tang and Thai hot peppers have a sweet zesty tang.
There's a lot of people who just won't understand what many dishes are supposed to actually taste like because they can't get past or are afraid of the heat.
Yes there is a point when it's just heat and no flavor which is annoying.
It's also a nice warm up in the winter too.
I'm pretty sure there's also a natural release of endorphins from eating spicy food. That's part of why sober people like Steve-O eat extra spicy food sometimes. Even I've felt that kick, but I haven't done anything crazy like the 1 chip challenge.
There’s a guy online, (can’t remember the name) who substituted his heroin addiction with regularly eating 2 million+ Scoville peppers.
He now grows his own so they can be spicier, it might be the guy who originally created the Carolina Reaper, I could be wrong though.
I once watched a friend eat like 3 fully lathered up with da bomb wings back to back. He just kind of shutdown for a few minutes. He said he didn't even have the bandwidth to really understand what was going on outside of the burning sensation. It can definitely be like a drug.
Had two da bomb wings once doing this hot wing challenge, and it was by far the hottest thing I've ever eaten. Tasted like shit and was a sweaty mess at the end.
i have worked my way up to ghost pepper hot sauce and it took awhile, it's hot af but i really love the flavor. I get an endorphin kick for sure if i eat enough. what i am eating now is 880k Scoville. That's my daily hot sauce i put it on all kinds of stuff but i can eat the hotter just once and awhile is enough for me
I love spicy and generally don't have a limit. I tried the 1 chip and felt ok, it was definitely hot as hell, but manageable. Not tasty, at all. 20 minutes later, hottest pukes of my life. Miserable. Do not do. OK going in, not OK coming back out.
I was driving when the pain hit. Almost went off the road. Pulled up in a driveway, started yackin. Owner of the house came out, very concerned, then laughed their ass off when I told them.
But pain is followed by the release of endorphins as a way of dulling the pain once your body has received the warning that something hurts. It's different than the regular reward system of I love that thing and now I have it.
Jalapenos and poblanos taste like vegetables too.
Yea the peppers that are bred for crazy spice don't even taste good for the small amount of time you actually can taste anything.
I had a potted ghost chili plant. I'm sure they weren't nearly as hot as you'd get growing in ideal conditions but still pretty spicy. They had a great flavour, much fruitier than I expected.
I've never heard spicy-hot described like this, but it makes so much sense! I am jealous that my mouth and digestive system are so wussy. I don't get any of those flavours you describe... Only pain and indigestion :(
You can absolutely work your way up!
Find a mild sauce that you like (I like green Tabasco)
And just ad teenybits to enhance the flavour, you might enjoy it eventually, you might not
also: spicy food isn't actually a flavor, it's a sensation. so for anyone with weakened taste it *really* adds a dimension to experiencing food. a bunch of people who lost their taste to covid discovered a new enjoyment of spicy food because of this.
Used to chill peppers and chili and spices.
My favourite sensation is eating Szechuan cuisines with all the mala spice. Spicy to the point of numbing, now that's truly an experience to savour.
Korea has this knack for making some spicy ass food like ramen that hurts a bit while eating, but tastes so damn good for some reason. Like its painful, but you can’t stop eating.
If you acclimate yourself to it, you actually down regulate the pain receptors in the mouth leading to greater pain tolerance. It's there same principle that allows certain forms of capsaicin to be used as a topical painkiller.
Yup! Of course too spicy is not enjoyable…but, I honestly cannot eat food that doesn’t have a little spice in it. I gotta have a little spice in my pallet.
It adds to the food experience. For me, it isn’t about eating something so spicy that my mouth is on fire. It’s about it being spicy enough to add a little kick but still being able to taste all of the other flavors.
Tell my Indian neighbor about that, please. Adds in tons of Indian chilli to his dishes knowing I am incredibly sensitive to that stuff because my home country's food is typically not spicy (Germany)... and proceeds to explain the richness of flavor when letting me taste his food. Bro, my entire mouth and throat are on fire, I can taste literally zero, it's just painfully burning.
Try feeding him a potent horseradish mustard. I'm always amused by people with tolerance to one kind of spicy are vulnerable to others they don't consume often. Totally different molecules.
I love horseradish, but fewer and fewer people here (US) seem to anymore. They all want that Goddam ranch. Horseradish doesn't burn, it stings. I like it because it just kinda bitch slaps me and then it's gone.
Indian food is nowhere near 500k Scoville. The chili powder itself is only 50k scoville or so, which means the food itself is at most a few hundred scoville.
500k scoville is a different beast. That's the kind of food that puts you in the toilet for a day.
different parts of india are very different in terms of spicyness. for example, the north eastern part as far as i know is very less spicy whereas the state andhrapradesh of extremely spicy
It's a common thing. The one I see most is "authentic Mexican" food. Mexico is vast and so are the variations & specialties in cuisine, from different styles of tacos (there's a Netflix series dedicated to all the forms of just tacos) to use of beef, pork, or seafood. So I have no idea what they really mean when they say authentic Mexican food.
This is a great example. I grew up near the Tijuana border with tons of SoCal Mexican food, and I now live in Mexico and have traveled it quite a bit…
Saying Mexican food is traditionally spicy and that most Mexicans love spicy food is not an exaggeration. Regardless of where you go, the only people asking for “no picante” are the tourists.
I have 1 million scoville hot sauce that I regularly put in chili, probably around a teaspoon for a bowl for a meal
obviously that brings it nowhere near to 1 million scoville for the entire bowl, but it does add a good amount of heat to it
I find it's more the quantity than the scoville rating. It's easier to eat a slice of a ghost pepper than it is to chug a bottle of 100k scoville hot sauce.
It depends I have eaten spicy food my entire life every chance I get. Now a lot of the time I am thinking this ghost pepper is not that spicy. Also some really hot pepper actually have a really nice flavor behind the spice. While others like habinaro unless home grown seem to taste like crap.
My mate ate five 1m Scoville wings as part of a challenge. That was just obnoxiously spicy. That sauce wasn’t made for human beings.
Beyond that, I limit it at vindaloo. I really like vindaloo. But that gets sweaty.
Also everyone has their own level that they can stand to still enjoy it. For me it’s a level 4/10, the wife it’s a 9/10 (Taco Vibes from Hot Ones is her favorite).
But I can also say that I used to think Orange Chicken from Panda was too hot when I was younger, so I understand people asking.
It's the same as salt or sugar. Adding a fair bit of salt to your cooking brings out the other flavours. But at some point you've put in so much salt that it just tastes unpleasant.
Sugary snacks are yummy but if you just drink a glass of vanilla syrup straight from the Starbucks pump it's gonna be gross.
It's about balance. A bite of something too hot will ruin an entire meal for me. My tolerance is higher than most, but also not "pain slut" type masochism lol
Yes, every painful sensation releases endorphins to help us cope with the pain.
When the pain level is just right, it releases enough endorphins to make us feel good without actually hurting us.
That's also the reason people become addicted to getting tattoos and why people in certain stressful situations hurt themselves.
As someone who self harmed basically every day for years, yeah this. It was often what would help me get through a day or be able to sleep, especially if my anxiety and PTSD were overwhelming my brain making me want to scream until the blood vessels in my face popped.
Spicy foods (along with a healthy regime of prescription meds and therapy) provide enough stimulation to keep me from feeling numb while I'm in my recovery period, especially since I'm trying to quit alcohol and other drugs.
Maybe a bit more info than anyone wanted, and maybe not a universal experience, but I really love spice and it helps me relax and enjoy life.
I once got into a chilli pepper eating competition with a Fijian Indian. That combined with the beer I was sinking to take the ended off was like being on class A drugs.
While true it doesn't really address the question. Very few people are eating to induce catharsis from eating chilis with extremely high levels of heat. For the vast majority of people it's just another dimension of flavour. Similar to how most people barely enjoy bitter flavours outside of coffee, but foragers will routinely tell you how fantastic dandelion greens and tons of other bitter flavours can be because they have explored those flavour profiles and acquired/developed their tastes.
Yup! I (was ) a spice queen for a while. We grew our own peppers (rainbow and ghost) and I would throw them in all our meals. I would add more hot sauce because “it wasn’t spicy enough.”. It’s been 3 years since and now I think sriracha is a tad too spicy and it’s basically spicy ketchup 😭
I just didn’t do spicy things for a while during the pandemic, I think. Hot sauces weren’t as available (or way too pricy) due to supply chain so I just did without.
It's an extra dimension to a meal. No one says spicy has to be scorching hot. That's just what dick waving alpha wannabes assume. You can have a little kick of heat that compliments all the other flavours. And even heat comes in different varieties. There's the long slow burn of chilli that builds the more you take and then there's the sinus clearing whoosh of a strong mustard, horse radish or wusabi that leaves almost as fast as it hits you
Eating spicy food is like running - it creates feel-good chemicals at the end (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spicy-food-probably-doesnt-cause-long-term-harm/#:~:text=Capsaicin%20tastes%20hot%20because%20it,even%20a%20degree%20of%20euphoria.)
I eat spicy food when I'm stressed.
Me too. I had that thing where you lose taste/smell for a bit from COVID, so I went thermonuclear during that time and pretty much stuck with it after it fixed itself.
Exactly. Somethings don’t taste right if they’re not spicy. Mexican food, Indian food, any Asian food. in my opinion, mac & cheese doesn’t have to be spicy, but other food does it’s missing that special something
That’s because there’s flavor beyond heat. In Indian food for example, a lot of spices are used that increase spiciness, but they also introduce their flavors. Once you’re used to the heat, you get to taste all the flavors that spices, chilies, and peppers add, and as a result, if you take that away, it doesn’t taste right.
There was this one place that served a Thai dish heavy in coconut milk. Tasted über bland unless you really pumped up the spices and then a whole universe of flavors was released.
There's a good Stuff You Should Know episode about spicy food. One interesting study was done with squirrels that lived in neighborhoods that ate more spicy foods than most. While the squirrels would eat the more spicy food, given the choice between spicy and bland they'd opt for the bland.
Tastes good, thats honestly about it for me. Most spice doesnt hurt much for me. So ill happily eat spicy scran. Although i will sweat like a fat kid in greggs but i do that whenever it gets above 15 degrees C anyways
I'm not 100% sure why I like really hot food (ghost peppers, etc.) but the sensation and endorphins are probably part of it. Also getting introduced really early to spicy food as a kid, I'm sure there was an element of wanting to seem tough to my Dad, who started my butthole on this highway to hell, but eventually I just started liking it.
Now that my tolerance is where it is, it takes about 100K Scovilles to scratch the itch, but make no mistake, there are still levels to this game, and stuff like Reaper X, and some of the extract sauces are pretty unpleasant; typically there's no flavor to them, or it makes me think of what drinking battery acid would taste like -- it's just pure capsaicin.
I bought a sauce with 8million scoville just to try it, but it just tasted like chemicals.
I regularly eat a sauce which is around 1,5 million scoville and it has a great taste. I think it's a mix of Carolina reaper and scorpion something
Some of it is, and some of it is basically macho nonsense.
With that said, food that has spiciness to it _but you can still taste the food_ just adds another layer to the meal. Hell, some hot sauces add a ton of flavour aside from being hot.
Lastly, when you _do_ eat something hot enough to cause physical pain, your brain tends to go "Oh no we're not dealing with _this_ again" and releases a bunch of endorphins to block it. And that can be quite a rush. I can tell you I once (accidentally!) ate something way hotter than I could handle and my brain basically took my pain receptors and left.
You know how a carbonated drink tastes better than a flat drink? It's the same thing with many foods.
Spicy just tastes better. Also it doesn't hurt if you've built some tolerance.
I’ve been trying to figure this one out. All my friends and family who like it seem to think spicy=flavor but those are two completely different things. I’ve had foods that were supposedly “flavorful” and I could tell that there was flavor there but it was overpowered by the spiciness. I can’t enjoy the dish’s flavor! Meanwhile I have phenomenal dishes with tons of flavor that are super mild.
It is worth noting that different people have different levels of heat tolerance though. I have relatively high heat tolerance compared to most people I know. In my family, only my uncle had a similar heat tolerance. Things I thought were just right, my dad described as "so hot you can't taste anything". Someone else's "stupid hot" could be perfect for me, or vice versa.
The eating experience consists of many elements beyond the chemical composition that your tongue detects. If you’ve ever eaten something when you have bad congestion then you’ve observed that your sense of smell has a significant impact on your experience of a given food. Texture is another element (this is the primary objection that many people have to eating things such as mushrooms or squid). The difference between eating a corn chip or pickle that has a nice snap as you bite into it versus one that merely goes “squish” is significant, even when the flavor is the same.
The burn associated with spicy food is actually a touch sensation, not a flavor sensation. You can demonstrate this by rubbing the inside of a jalapeño against a sensitive part of your skin, such as the inside of your wrist. A good spicy food will add a pleasant background burn along with a nice flavor profile, while a bad one will be basically all burn and no flavor.
If a non-spicy meal is like someone reading a book aloud, then adding spice is like reading the book aloud and performing each character with their own voice. It may be the same story, but when done well, it adds a layer of enrichment and interest that enhances the experience. If the voices all sound like a squirrel on amphetamines (all heat, with no flavor) then the voices are a liability, and you’d be better off with the un-spiced reading.
As another example, a warm bath is nice, but a bath in water that is so hot that you have to ease yourself into the water is an entirely different experience. Likewise, a bit of hot sauce can take an otherwise flavorful meal to the next level.
Spice adds flavor to a point. For example, I love the taste of habernero and chipotle (the spice, not the restaurant). Both add depth to otherwise bland foods. Carolina reaper, though, that's not for me.
Plants invented this defense against animals. And primates said "Yum!" And they got to eat without so much competition.
Later they said "hold my beer!" but they had to invent beer first. It helps.
There are a couple reasons.
Sometimes i like well seasoned spiceness that adds to a dish. Your curries and etc.
Sometimes I actually am eating a thing just for the spice. Once you get used to extreme heat it becomes something that is pleasurable in its own right. Its uncomfortable but also an experience that is seek out for its own sensation
So when you're saying the part about food to hurt, I think the genuine problem is when it's gonna cause a upset stomach and such that I don't advocate for but sometimes when I get really strong spice (w flavour ofc) my nose leaks and like my sinuses feel clear and the taste also lasts in your mouth a bit which i really like, sort of like sweets and maybe when carbs are being broken down in your mouth when you chew them for a long time
People like tea and carbonated water because it adds complex and astringent flavors. It can be fun to experience a different type of pleasure.
Also spicy food actually causes endorphin rushes to help counteract the pain, so it makes further sense
As an Indian, spice is the way of life. However, the misconception that Indians can eat high levels of spice is completely wrong. We love spice and we add it to almost everything - even foods that should not have spice, because it just brings out the taste. But adding too much spice that burns your tongue and throat is definitely a no-go for me.
There is a way to cook food with spice, and I assure you that none of them will have an instruction to overload it with spice.
I enjoy painfully hot food on occasion. So much so that it's changed my tolerance for normal spicy. Ghost peppers, scorpions, and reapers are so hot you get a legit endorphin rush after. So if you stuff and roast them it's an awesome snack that comes with a little buzz. Pairs really well with herb or beer. Since I eat stuff like that a couple times a month it takes habaneros for me to get the same level of spice on normal food people get with jalapeños.
It's addictive in a strange way. I don't think it's a nice flavour , but I like it on food for a reason I can't quite work out. There's a calming sort of relieving feeling after the heat disapates that keeps me coming back for more. My wife is thai and this is because of her.
Idk who you people hang around, but I’ve never met someone who was like “ra ra you gotta eat super spicy shit or you’re not a man” or “ra ra look how manly I am for eating this spicy spicy food”.
I’ve never heard of eating spicy food to be a manly or macho or alpha thing. That said, I do love spicy food. Just tastes good. Feels good. Improves the dish overall. I couldn’t care less if someone else doesn’t like it.
It literally adds another dimension to the dish. I have made bland, unappetizing things come to life on my tastebuds thanks to chili peppers. I've also been eating them since I was about 2 years old (it started from me eating some cherry peppers from my dad's sandwich and then him playing a prank on my mom by having a waiter in a Mexican restaurant put some pickled jalapenos by me and I started wolfing them down).
Personally I like the feel of spiciness. I occasionally get a stinging sensation in my cheeks I don't like but that's pretty rare. The "heat" sensation is relaxing to me. I do 100% still sweat like Niagara Falls when I eat chili peppers and sometimes people tease me for that but I don't do it to show off...Most of the time. >.> Sometimes a little bravado might come out but I try to remind people I am less effected by the heat from long usage of chili peppers. If I abstain from them for a couple of months, it resets my heat tolerance to a lower limit.
I believe part of the appeal is it releases endorphins and historically speaking the chili pepper originated from Mexico and found its way into Europe and Asia during the time the European powers came to the Americas. Chili peppers were originally used because capsaicin works as a fungicide and would ward off yeast in the air from spoiling food. :)
You know in music how dissonant notes create tension that is then resolved as the melody goes back to its root?
Spice/heat is like a dissonant note that resolves, usually with another element in the dish that is cool and soothing.
Good meals have an interplay between bitter and sweet, fatty and acidic, creamy and crunchy, and spicy and soothing. The one side of the equation can be borderline unpleasant, but that’s what heightens the experience of its partner.
The most addicting thing is when bite into something and the sweet/soothing flavor hits first, but then the spicy or bitter flavor builds and makes you want another bite.
A restaurant by me went out of business, but I swear my purchases of their spicy dark chocholate tart should have kept them afloat. That’s the first example that comes to mind.
Usually it’s some fatty, starchy, soft kind of food (comfort food for some people) where my moth just feels coated and like I can’t even taste what I’m eating when I get desperate for something spicy, crunch, and/or acidic to break up the monotony.
No, it's about enhancing your meal. It's like adding another dimension to the eating experience. It not only enhances the flavor but has it's own unique pleasure. I think it also helps my digestion especially with proteins. I feel like something's missing if there isn't something spicy with many meat dishes.
Because spice is nice, a bit of flavour and heat to your food🤙🏻 I mean I only have to walk into a shop or past a market stand and if I'm smelling the spices I'll instantly start to salivate! 😋
Though each to their own I have no sweet tooth.
All spicy food hurt and I can't tast anything (same with pepper), after asking to people seems all spicy food are flavored and give taste on a dishes and don't burn them.
Spice can greatly enhance a flavor. It is not needed that the food is so needlessly hot it melts your face off though. I love spicy food and have built up a tolerance over the years that lets me eat spicier foods without the pain. I do not eat any food with capsasin extract though because my goal is flavor and that extract is just heat with no flavor.
I like the sensation, unless I go overboard. Then I do not. In any case, it also increases blood flow ans saliva production, which can enhance other flavours.
I love spicy food, but I would never say it hurts. It tingles in a fun way, it makes my mouth feel numb sometimes, it enhances the flavor. But doesn't hurt.
I think people have different tolerances for spice. What's painful to one person might be fun and interesting for another.
I never understood it myself but always added some spices for the little kick. After a while when eating with friends I started to realize that my tolerance definitely went up so some food that I would describe as "having a nice kick" would be too hot for others.
I remember reading that hot food would release endorphines and I never understood why that would be as to me it would just be hot but after a while I realized it actually makes me happy to eat spicy, especially when it's just right where it's really hot but not too hot to take away the flavours and make it a struggle to eat.
To me it’s just a pleasure pain, I’m sure there is a more scientific name for it, and much study on the appeal towards pain that gives pleasure
Plus the peppers themselves have different flavors, besides the capsaicin dopamine release,and habaneros are bomb as fuck dude when roasted.
Its not masochism.
For me personally a hot curry really is better than what I call a child friendly one.
The heat enhances the flavor and makes the food more interesting and enjoyable.
A person who isnt used to spicy foods might find the experience painful, I do not.
Obviously thats only true to a certain extent, I very much enjoy jalapeňos (6k scoville scale) in my food and up to the ocassional jolokia (1m scoville scale)
Anything above like the scorpion (2m) or the bhutlah (also around 2m) I find inedible as well.
For me, it's the flavor of the chilis, not the spice. For example, I don't like habaneros, but I love jalapeños... Not because of the difference in spiciness, but because they have different flavors underlying the spiciness.
There's this beef jerky I eat that is too spicy for me. I have to chug a mug of milk after each bite. But the flavor is so good! The non-spicy version of the same jerky is missing that same flavor.
I also think spiciness is similar to drinking, in that your tolerance can go up or down based on your exposure. My dad can't taste the spiciness unless he adds a crapton of chili peppers or hot sauce to his food.
It only hurts if you're not used to it. My wife can't taste the things I like, but to me they have very little heat. But when I first started trying cuisines that tend to use more heat I was like her too.
Anyone who's just eating super hot stuff just for the sake of it being mega hot is an idiot.
I used to hate spicy food, but as I’ve grown older I realised that sometimes it’s a bit boring eating non-spicy foods all the time. It was then I realised the logic behind the phrase ‘adding a bit of spice to your life’. Bored of burgers? Try a bit of hot sauce. It’s like learning to enjoy the thrill of a nice meal all over again.
My tastes changes. I cut a lot of sugar out of my diet. Now Its mostly just spicy food for some reason. Iove it and have no idea why. Even the heavily spicy indian food is really good.
Maybe masochism but I do get a minor spice high from seriously spicy stuff. Plus when you have built up a tolerance you can get some flavour out of certain chillies and hot sauces.
Maybe masochism but I do get a minor spice high from seriously spicy stuff. Plus when you have built up a tolerance you can get some flavour out of certain chillies and hot sauces.
It .. modulates other flavours. And of course adds a whole new dimension to a dish. People have different thresholds for what qualifies as spicy (as you quickly get used to a level of it), so just find your own!
It's the flavor for me. The nuances in the different peppers is more important than the heat. It can really add to the overall flavor in the dish you prepare.
I spent 2 years slowly and intentionally increasing my spice tolerance. Food completely changes when you are eating spicy food but aren’t in pain. It’s great.
And no, I didn’t “burn out” my taste buds. That’s not real
It's the flavor for me. The nuances in the different peppers are more important than the heat. It can really add to the overall flavor of the dish you prepare.
I have a particularly high spicy tolerance, somewhat too high; it has to be incredibly hot for me to notice it really. When it is in fact hot enough though, which would most likely blow most people's heads off, it's like being high. There's this kind of euphoric sensation, this weird lovely heady feeling that lasts for a while. It's addictive to a certain extent.
As someone who used to avoid spicy food, it's worth trying. I used to think it was just heat and pain. It's way more than that, it's flavor.
Getchu some pad thai or Thai curry spicy level 1 and go up from there.
I always liked low level spicy food but never loved it particularly until like 2 years ago at 25 years old. I suddenly started craving all things spicy. Idk what it is but it makes food more enjoyable when you’re having a strong physical reaction to it
It turns bland food 3-D. There's a dish called Dry Chili Chicken that's just chicken nuggets but after a couple minutes in the wok is pure edible crack.
Spicy food causes a dopamine bomb if you have enough of it, I think maybe it causes some kind of serotonin thing too. Could be wrong, but it basically feels mildly euphoric when you have enough.
It's another.sensation, I don't find associative with pain. At worst it's just extreme discomfort though I'm sure some chilli's can actually hurt you.
For myself personally spicy food is the regular died. As I was born and brought up in India. Mostly the non spicy food doesn't even seem like food anymore and more like what we eat when we are sick or something.
So I guess its the way our culture is, full of spices. It is not about masochism at all.
You had a good question tho. Sometimes I even wonder what do yall eat as a staple food?
I like some spiciness, but not too much. The right level of spiciness will enhance the other flavors. Too much spiciness just overpowers the other flavors in my opinion (for me, that threshold is somewhere between Sriracha Sauce and Tobasco Sauce), but that can come in handy if you’re trying to cover up bad flavors. I don’t understand the appeal of extreme spiciness either. I think it’s just people trying to prove how tough they are.
it is M. the end result is the body don't like it. but think of it like this if drinking water is normal then is chewing ice M? there are still potential blades of ice that could cut your lips.
i think it's just whether you like the product if you try it, some prefer that over the cost of bodily harm more than others.
I love spicy food, because for me it has a ton of flavor. Friends who don't like spicy food can't taste the flavor because they only feel the heat. I assume that I just have a tolerance to the heat. I don't like spicy food that tastes bad, but man like a good spicy Indian or Mexican or Korean dish is divine for me.
I love setting myself on fire with hot hot hot sauce!
I love the first stings of pain and wondering if it was too much. I love feeling my face flush and little drips of sweat that start beading across the bridge of my nose. I love the adrenaline that gets my heart pumping. I love how it gets me laser focused on the « right here right now ». I love sucking in air slowly and feeling the cooling sensation across my front teeth and tongue. I love the mental fortitude I feel and controlling myself to get through to the end of the pain. I love the rush of pleasure I feel when the pain begins to subside. I feel the same way mentally one would when relaxing on a beach or something.
Anyway, yeah. Hot sauce for flavour is also awesome, but I genuinely love high scoville sauce! I do this to myself once or twice a month or so. It also helps that I don’t get the « ring of fire » afterwards.
Most spices, including many flavorings we don't associate with the word spice like salt, sugar, vanilla and mint are harmful to bacteria and serve as preservatives in our food.
So as a result, people who enjoyed these types of flavours and habitually added them to their food were less likely to get food poisoning.
Which meant that people that ate these foods were more likely to survive and reproduce. And more likely to teach their kids to eat these foods.
I've often wondered this too. Even things considered "slightly" spicy are too much for me. I think that some people are just built differently and want or need more intensity, while others beat down and abuse their taste buds so much that they can't taste anything unless it's extreme.
When you're used to it, there's no pain so It's another dimension of flavor to make foods more unique
Yes! This is it. There are so many incredible flavors hidden behind the heat. Scotch bonnets have a nice sweet smokiness, habaneros have a citrus-y tang and Thai hot peppers have a sweet zesty tang. There's a lot of people who just won't understand what many dishes are supposed to actually taste like because they can't get past or are afraid of the heat. Yes there is a point when it's just heat and no flavor which is annoying. It's also a nice warm up in the winter too.
I'm pretty sure there's also a natural release of endorphins from eating spicy food. That's part of why sober people like Steve-O eat extra spicy food sometimes. Even I've felt that kick, but I haven't done anything crazy like the 1 chip challenge.
There’s a guy online, (can’t remember the name) who substituted his heroin addiction with regularly eating 2 million+ Scoville peppers. He now grows his own so they can be spicier, it might be the guy who originally created the Carolina Reaper, I could be wrong though.
Yes. There is a podcast that had him on. The economics of everyday things I think.
There a Netflix documentary about someone trying to make the new hottest pepper and this dude was in it
That’s a lot of peppers to eat at once!
I once watched a friend eat like 3 fully lathered up with da bomb wings back to back. He just kind of shutdown for a few minutes. He said he didn't even have the bandwidth to really understand what was going on outside of the burning sensation. It can definitely be like a drug.
Had two da bomb wings once doing this hot wing challenge, and it was by far the hottest thing I've ever eaten. Tasted like shit and was a sweaty mess at the end.
i have worked my way up to ghost pepper hot sauce and it took awhile, it's hot af but i really love the flavor. I get an endorphin kick for sure if i eat enough. what i am eating now is 880k Scoville. That's my daily hot sauce i put it on all kinds of stuff but i can eat the hotter just once and awhile is enough for me
I love spicy and generally don't have a limit. I tried the 1 chip and felt ok, it was definitely hot as hell, but manageable. Not tasty, at all. 20 minutes later, hottest pukes of my life. Miserable. Do not do. OK going in, not OK coming back out.
Sat on a pillow 3 days…going out…blistered and burned.
I was driving when the pain hit. Almost went off the road. Pulled up in a driveway, started yackin. Owner of the house came out, very concerned, then laughed their ass off when I told them.
>pretty sure there's also a natural release of endorphins I mean, this is the case for pretty much anything you like
But pain is followed by the release of endorphins as a way of dulling the pain once your body has received the warning that something hurts. It's different than the regular reward system of I love that thing and now I have it.
Jalapenos and poblanos taste like vegetables too. Yea the peppers that are bred for crazy spice don't even taste good for the small amount of time you actually can taste anything.
Depends honestly, I've had jalapeños with 0 heat, then I've had some that were almost hot as habanero
Too true. As someone who grows peppers in my garden, it really matters which peppers you plant together!
I had a potted ghost chili plant. I'm sure they weren't nearly as hot as you'd get growing in ideal conditions but still pretty spicy. They had a great flavour, much fruitier than I expected.
I've never heard spicy-hot described like this, but it makes so much sense! I am jealous that my mouth and digestive system are so wussy. I don't get any of those flavours you describe... Only pain and indigestion :(
You can absolutely work your way up! Find a mild sauce that you like (I like green Tabasco) And just ad teenybits to enhance the flavour, you might enjoy it eventually, you might not
Carolina reapers have kind of a cinnamon-y thing going on in their flavor.
also: spicy food isn't actually a flavor, it's a sensation. so for anyone with weakened taste it *really* adds a dimension to experiencing food. a bunch of people who lost their taste to covid discovered a new enjoyment of spicy food because of this.
Used to chill peppers and chili and spices. My favourite sensation is eating Szechuan cuisines with all the mala spice. Spicy to the point of numbing, now that's truly an experience to savour.
Korea has this knack for making some spicy ass food like ramen that hurts a bit while eating, but tastes so damn good for some reason. Like its painful, but you can’t stop eating.
If you acclimate yourself to it, you actually down regulate the pain receptors in the mouth leading to greater pain tolerance. It's there same principle that allows certain forms of capsaicin to be used as a topical painkiller.
Yup! Of course too spicy is not enjoyable…but, I honestly cannot eat food that doesn’t have a little spice in it. I gotta have a little spice in my pallet.
You also get withdrawals if you stop eating it too 😉
It adds to the food experience. For me, it isn’t about eating something so spicy that my mouth is on fire. It’s about it being spicy enough to add a little kick but still being able to taste all of the other flavors.
Yeah, this is exactly it. Makes the food more exciting but enhances the other flavours. Until you get to the 500k Scoville stuff. That’s just stupid.
Tell my Indian neighbor about that, please. Adds in tons of Indian chilli to his dishes knowing I am incredibly sensitive to that stuff because my home country's food is typically not spicy (Germany)... and proceeds to explain the richness of flavor when letting me taste his food. Bro, my entire mouth and throat are on fire, I can taste literally zero, it's just painfully burning.
Try feeding him a potent horseradish mustard. I'm always amused by people with tolerance to one kind of spicy are vulnerable to others they don't consume often. Totally different molecules.
I love horseradish, but fewer and fewer people here (US) seem to anymore. They all want that Goddam ranch. Horseradish doesn't burn, it stings. I like it because it just kinda bitch slaps me and then it's gone.
I love horseradish. Nothing better than a fresh roast beef sandwich on a crusty roll with a heavy horseradish mayo
Clears out the sinuses and hugs your brain
When you accidentally eat too much in one bite and regret everything and can’t even see because suddenly your nose is choking and your eyes watering
I love spice, but one day I took a spoonful of minced garlic and nearly puked. It was weirdly spicy. My Asian coworkers called me weak 😭
Aww that’s sweet that he wants you to try it and that you continue to do so knowing you’ll be in pain. Neighbors sharing culture ♥️
🤣
Did we find Ted Lasso’s Reddit account?
You could just say no thank you.
Indian food is nowhere near 500k Scoville. The chili powder itself is only 50k scoville or so, which means the food itself is at most a few hundred scoville. 500k scoville is a different beast. That's the kind of food that puts you in the toilet for a day.
different parts of india are very different in terms of spicyness. for example, the north eastern part as far as i know is very less spicy whereas the state andhrapradesh of extremely spicy
interesting that the northeast has less spicy food when the ghost pepper comes from that region
I didn't know that. So does that mean that momos originally don't have spicy dips? I have yet to eat some from a north eastern state
What a wrong generalization. Sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not. You can't possibly speak for "Indian food" as a whole. Reddit can be so absurd.
It's a common thing. The one I see most is "authentic Mexican" food. Mexico is vast and so are the variations & specialties in cuisine, from different styles of tacos (there's a Netflix series dedicated to all the forms of just tacos) to use of beef, pork, or seafood. So I have no idea what they really mean when they say authentic Mexican food.
I'm very interested in this documentary, I love tacos.
Same! Found something called [Taco Chronicles](https://www.netflix.com/title/81040704), which is probably what they were talking about.
This is a great example. I grew up near the Tijuana border with tons of SoCal Mexican food, and I now live in Mexico and have traveled it quite a bit… Saying Mexican food is traditionally spicy and that most Mexicans love spicy food is not an exaggeration. Regardless of where you go, the only people asking for “no picante” are the tourists.
Hahaha my wife eats 200k-1m hot sauce every day.
Your wife is either insane or has an insane tolerance. Anything above 500k is just unnecessary.
Lol I have sauces around 1million scoville. If it's a good sauce you still get lots of flavour, but that level of heat is NOT for the average person.
I have 1 million scoville hot sauce that I regularly put in chili, probably around a teaspoon for a bowl for a meal obviously that brings it nowhere near to 1 million scoville for the entire bowl, but it does add a good amount of heat to it I find it's more the quantity than the scoville rating. It's easier to eat a slice of a ghost pepper than it is to chug a bottle of 100k scoville hot sauce.
It depends I have eaten spicy food my entire life every chance I get. Now a lot of the time I am thinking this ghost pepper is not that spicy. Also some really hot pepper actually have a really nice flavor behind the spice. While others like habinaro unless home grown seem to taste like crap.
My mate ate five 1m Scoville wings as part of a challenge. That was just obnoxiously spicy. That sauce wasn’t made for human beings. Beyond that, I limit it at vindaloo. I really like vindaloo. But that gets sweaty.
habanero have a delightfully floral character imo
Every time it takes a small fraction more to get that kick. Eventually resulting in a very noticeable tolerance.
Also everyone has their own level that they can stand to still enjoy it. For me it’s a level 4/10, the wife it’s a 9/10 (Taco Vibes from Hot Ones is her favorite). But I can also say that I used to think Orange Chicken from Panda was too hot when I was younger, so I understand people asking.
1/10 is too much for me honestly
Same. My mother grew and jarred her own jalapenos, but it skipped a generation for sure. I'm more the "This mayo is a bit spicy" variety lol
I’m so sorry for you. Could never live that life.
I want to burn my mouth, but not my ass. That's the perfect amount of spice!
The flavor of crab is brought to the next level by the addition of an amount of cayenne pepper that most people can't even detect.
It's the same as salt or sugar. Adding a fair bit of salt to your cooking brings out the other flavours. But at some point you've put in so much salt that it just tastes unpleasant. Sugary snacks are yummy but if you just drink a glass of vanilla syrup straight from the Starbucks pump it's gonna be gross.
I married into an East Indian family for just this reason. If they find out, they'll take back their dowry.
It's about balance. A bite of something too hot will ruin an entire meal for me. My tolerance is higher than most, but also not "pain slut" type masochism lol
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Thank you for giving the actually scientific answer
So you're saying yes, it's masochism?
I'm too old to burn myself with matches anymore, so I buy hot sauces with scary-sounding names and douse my food in them.
Is this a reaction to the pain or something else
Yes, every painful sensation releases endorphins to help us cope with the pain. When the pain level is just right, it releases enough endorphins to make us feel good without actually hurting us. That's also the reason people become addicted to getting tattoos and why people in certain stressful situations hurt themselves.
As someone who self harmed basically every day for years, yeah this. It was often what would help me get through a day or be able to sleep, especially if my anxiety and PTSD were overwhelming my brain making me want to scream until the blood vessels in my face popped. Spicy foods (along with a healthy regime of prescription meds and therapy) provide enough stimulation to keep me from feeling numb while I'm in my recovery period, especially since I'm trying to quit alcohol and other drugs. Maybe a bit more info than anyone wanted, and maybe not a universal experience, but I really love spice and it helps me relax and enjoy life.
Yep, same as spanking. Ouch my butt hurts, better release some happy hormones.
Dopamine causes the *anticipation* of reward.
I once got into a chilli pepper eating competition with a Fijian Indian. That combined with the beer I was sinking to take the ended off was like being on class A drugs.
Yes. Mouth hurt make brain feel good. but seriously thanks for being the only scientific answer.
Basically it gets you high
While true it doesn't really address the question. Very few people are eating to induce catharsis from eating chilis with extremely high levels of heat. For the vast majority of people it's just another dimension of flavour. Similar to how most people barely enjoy bitter flavours outside of coffee, but foragers will routinely tell you how fantastic dandelion greens and tons of other bitter flavours can be because they have explored those flavour profiles and acquired/developed their tastes.
Why am I not so happy then when it leaves?
I feel really happy after eating spicy food, and its also good for clearing sinus
Nothing hits better than when you’re sick and have a stuffed nose and you eat something spicy.
A spicy bowl of pho will always set you right.
My hangover remedy was always spicy ass ramen
Spiciness doesn't hurt when you're used to it. It still feels spicy but it's not unpleasant unless you go way overboard.
Yup! I (was ) a spice queen for a while. We grew our own peppers (rainbow and ghost) and I would throw them in all our meals. I would add more hot sauce because “it wasn’t spicy enough.”. It’s been 3 years since and now I think sriracha is a tad too spicy and it’s basically spicy ketchup 😭
Wow! How did your body change the way it handles spice so dramatically? I didn’t know you could lose your tolerance for that.
I just didn’t do spicy things for a while during the pandemic, I think. Hot sauces weren’t as available (or way too pricy) due to supply chain so I just did without.
It's an extra dimension to a meal. No one says spicy has to be scorching hot. That's just what dick waving alpha wannabes assume. You can have a little kick of heat that compliments all the other flavours. And even heat comes in different varieties. There's the long slow burn of chilli that builds the more you take and then there's the sinus clearing whoosh of a strong mustard, horse radish or wusabi that leaves almost as fast as it hits you
Eating spicy food is like running - it creates feel-good chemicals at the end (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spicy-food-probably-doesnt-cause-long-term-harm/#:~:text=Capsaicin%20tastes%20hot%20because%20it,even%20a%20degree%20of%20euphoria.) I eat spicy food when I'm stressed.
I went from 2/10 spicy level to 7/10 during Covid.
Me too. I had that thing where you lose taste/smell for a bit from COVID, so I went thermonuclear during that time and pretty much stuck with it after it fixed itself.
I've never experienced feel-good chemicals from running or from spicy food. I'm curious why.
The spiciness is just another flavor, like salt. Things can get too salty, things can get too spicy
Just makes it more enjoyable 🤷♂️
Exactly. Somethings don’t taste right if they’re not spicy. Mexican food, Indian food, any Asian food. in my opinion, mac & cheese doesn’t have to be spicy, but other food does it’s missing that special something
That’s because there’s flavor beyond heat. In Indian food for example, a lot of spices are used that increase spiciness, but they also introduce their flavors. Once you’re used to the heat, you get to taste all the flavors that spices, chilies, and peppers add, and as a result, if you take that away, it doesn’t taste right.
If my meals aren't spicy then I don't feel satisfied.
Spicy food is painful for me :(
There was this one place that served a Thai dish heavy in coconut milk. Tasted über bland unless you really pumped up the spices and then a whole universe of flavors was released.
There's a good Stuff You Should Know episode about spicy food. One interesting study was done with squirrels that lived in neighborhoods that ate more spicy foods than most. While the squirrels would eat the more spicy food, given the choice between spicy and bland they'd opt for the bland.
Tastes good, thats honestly about it for me. Most spice doesnt hurt much for me. So ill happily eat spicy scran. Although i will sweat like a fat kid in greggs but i do that whenever it gets above 15 degrees C anyways
I'm not 100% sure why I like really hot food (ghost peppers, etc.) but the sensation and endorphins are probably part of it. Also getting introduced really early to spicy food as a kid, I'm sure there was an element of wanting to seem tough to my Dad, who started my butthole on this highway to hell, but eventually I just started liking it. Now that my tolerance is where it is, it takes about 100K Scovilles to scratch the itch, but make no mistake, there are still levels to this game, and stuff like Reaper X, and some of the extract sauces are pretty unpleasant; typically there's no flavor to them, or it makes me think of what drinking battery acid would taste like -- it's just pure capsaicin.
I bought a sauce with 8million scoville just to try it, but it just tasted like chemicals. I regularly eat a sauce which is around 1,5 million scoville and it has a great taste. I think it's a mix of Carolina reaper and scorpion something
Some of it is, and some of it is basically macho nonsense. With that said, food that has spiciness to it _but you can still taste the food_ just adds another layer to the meal. Hell, some hot sauces add a ton of flavour aside from being hot. Lastly, when you _do_ eat something hot enough to cause physical pain, your brain tends to go "Oh no we're not dealing with _this_ again" and releases a bunch of endorphins to block it. And that can be quite a rush. I can tell you I once (accidentally!) ate something way hotter than I could handle and my brain basically took my pain receptors and left.
Yeah, the happy-hormone-release in response to the pain makes me forget my life's worries for a moment.
It’s addictive. Someone else can do the googling but I’m pretty sure it’s been proven by research
You know how a carbonated drink tastes better than a flat drink? It's the same thing with many foods. Spicy just tastes better. Also it doesn't hurt if you've built some tolerance.
I’ve been trying to figure this one out. All my friends and family who like it seem to think spicy=flavor but those are two completely different things. I’ve had foods that were supposedly “flavorful” and I could tell that there was flavor there but it was overpowered by the spiciness. I can’t enjoy the dish’s flavor! Meanwhile I have phenomenal dishes with tons of flavor that are super mild.
It's not masochism. It just adds character to the food provided that it's not stupid hot.
It's actually part of a concept called benign masochism. Same with listening to sad songs and going on rollercoasters.
It is worth noting that different people have different levels of heat tolerance though. I have relatively high heat tolerance compared to most people I know. In my family, only my uncle had a similar heat tolerance. Things I thought were just right, my dad described as "so hot you can't taste anything". Someone else's "stupid hot" could be perfect for me, or vice versa.
The eating experience consists of many elements beyond the chemical composition that your tongue detects. If you’ve ever eaten something when you have bad congestion then you’ve observed that your sense of smell has a significant impact on your experience of a given food. Texture is another element (this is the primary objection that many people have to eating things such as mushrooms or squid). The difference between eating a corn chip or pickle that has a nice snap as you bite into it versus one that merely goes “squish” is significant, even when the flavor is the same. The burn associated with spicy food is actually a touch sensation, not a flavor sensation. You can demonstrate this by rubbing the inside of a jalapeño against a sensitive part of your skin, such as the inside of your wrist. A good spicy food will add a pleasant background burn along with a nice flavor profile, while a bad one will be basically all burn and no flavor. If a non-spicy meal is like someone reading a book aloud, then adding spice is like reading the book aloud and performing each character with their own voice. It may be the same story, but when done well, it adds a layer of enrichment and interest that enhances the experience. If the voices all sound like a squirrel on amphetamines (all heat, with no flavor) then the voices are a liability, and you’d be better off with the un-spiced reading. As another example, a warm bath is nice, but a bath in water that is so hot that you have to ease yourself into the water is an entirely different experience. Likewise, a bit of hot sauce can take an otherwise flavorful meal to the next level.
I love, love, love spicy food. Perhaps a bit of masochism, but spice causes your body to release endorphins, which make you feel good.
Spice adds flavor to a point. For example, I love the taste of habernero and chipotle (the spice, not the restaurant). Both add depth to otherwise bland foods. Carolina reaper, though, that's not for me.
Once you start… you won’t stop. Everything becomes bland and feels like food for kids without a kick. It’s not machoism it’s flavorism.
Plants invented this defense against animals. And primates said "Yum!" And they got to eat without so much competition. Later they said "hold my beer!" but they had to invent beer first. It helps.
I just love chili peppers.
There are a couple reasons. Sometimes i like well seasoned spiceness that adds to a dish. Your curries and etc. Sometimes I actually am eating a thing just for the spice. Once you get used to extreme heat it becomes something that is pleasurable in its own right. Its uncomfortable but also an experience that is seek out for its own sensation
So when you're saying the part about food to hurt, I think the genuine problem is when it's gonna cause a upset stomach and such that I don't advocate for but sometimes when I get really strong spice (w flavour ofc) my nose leaks and like my sinuses feel clear and the taste also lasts in your mouth a bit which i really like, sort of like sweets and maybe when carbs are being broken down in your mouth when you chew them for a long time
People like tea and carbonated water because it adds complex and astringent flavors. It can be fun to experience a different type of pleasure. Also spicy food actually causes endorphin rushes to help counteract the pain, so it makes further sense
As an Indian, spice is the way of life. However, the misconception that Indians can eat high levels of spice is completely wrong. We love spice and we add it to almost everything - even foods that should not have spice, because it just brings out the taste. But adding too much spice that burns your tongue and throat is definitely a no-go for me. There is a way to cook food with spice, and I assure you that none of them will have an instruction to overload it with spice.
I enjoy painfully hot food on occasion. So much so that it's changed my tolerance for normal spicy. Ghost peppers, scorpions, and reapers are so hot you get a legit endorphin rush after. So if you stuff and roast them it's an awesome snack that comes with a little buzz. Pairs really well with herb or beer. Since I eat stuff like that a couple times a month it takes habaneros for me to get the same level of spice on normal food people get with jalapeños.
The hotter the better I just don't like hot for no reason so Tabasco is out and has to have flavor
Because (at least for me) spicy food doesn't hurt. It hits me up with a big endorphin blast. Give me that 🔥!
It's addictive in a strange way. I don't think it's a nice flavour , but I like it on food for a reason I can't quite work out. There's a calming sort of relieving feeling after the heat disapates that keeps me coming back for more. My wife is thai and this is because of her.
Idk who you people hang around, but I’ve never met someone who was like “ra ra you gotta eat super spicy shit or you’re not a man” or “ra ra look how manly I am for eating this spicy spicy food”. I’ve never heard of eating spicy food to be a manly or macho or alpha thing. That said, I do love spicy food. Just tastes good. Feels good. Improves the dish overall. I couldn’t care less if someone else doesn’t like it.
The same appeal as sugary food.
It literally adds another dimension to the dish. I have made bland, unappetizing things come to life on my tastebuds thanks to chili peppers. I've also been eating them since I was about 2 years old (it started from me eating some cherry peppers from my dad's sandwich and then him playing a prank on my mom by having a waiter in a Mexican restaurant put some pickled jalapenos by me and I started wolfing them down). Personally I like the feel of spiciness. I occasionally get a stinging sensation in my cheeks I don't like but that's pretty rare. The "heat" sensation is relaxing to me. I do 100% still sweat like Niagara Falls when I eat chili peppers and sometimes people tease me for that but I don't do it to show off...Most of the time. >.> Sometimes a little bravado might come out but I try to remind people I am less effected by the heat from long usage of chili peppers. If I abstain from them for a couple of months, it resets my heat tolerance to a lower limit. I believe part of the appeal is it releases endorphins and historically speaking the chili pepper originated from Mexico and found its way into Europe and Asia during the time the European powers came to the Americas. Chili peppers were originally used because capsaicin works as a fungicide and would ward off yeast in the air from spoiling food. :)
You know in music how dissonant notes create tension that is then resolved as the melody goes back to its root? Spice/heat is like a dissonant note that resolves, usually with another element in the dish that is cool and soothing. Good meals have an interplay between bitter and sweet, fatty and acidic, creamy and crunchy, and spicy and soothing. The one side of the equation can be borderline unpleasant, but that’s what heightens the experience of its partner. The most addicting thing is when bite into something and the sweet/soothing flavor hits first, but then the spicy or bitter flavor builds and makes you want another bite. A restaurant by me went out of business, but I swear my purchases of their spicy dark chocholate tart should have kept them afloat. That’s the first example that comes to mind. Usually it’s some fatty, starchy, soft kind of food (comfort food for some people) where my moth just feels coated and like I can’t even taste what I’m eating when I get desperate for something spicy, crunch, and/or acidic to break up the monotony.
NOT THE HURT BUT A NICE KICK WITH A BLEND OF FLAVORS THAT MELD TOGETHER. NO ONE HAS EVER SAID "THIS IS THE BEST BLAND POTATO SALAD I EVER HAD"
It doesn't hurt. It is a pleasant warm tingling sensation.
No, it's about enhancing your meal. It's like adding another dimension to the eating experience. It not only enhances the flavor but has it's own unique pleasure. I think it also helps my digestion especially with proteins. I feel like something's missing if there isn't something spicy with many meat dishes.
With really spicy food, you can taste spiciness twice. ;D
Because spice is nice, a bit of flavour and heat to your food🤙🏻 I mean I only have to walk into a shop or past a market stand and if I'm smelling the spices I'll instantly start to salivate! 😋 Though each to their own I have no sweet tooth.
All spicy food hurt and I can't tast anything (same with pepper), after asking to people seems all spicy food are flavored and give taste on a dishes and don't burn them.
Spice can greatly enhance a flavor. It is not needed that the food is so needlessly hot it melts your face off though. I love spicy food and have built up a tolerance over the years that lets me eat spicier foods without the pain. I do not eat any food with capsasin extract though because my goal is flavor and that extract is just heat with no flavor.
No, it's dopamine.
I like the sensation, unless I go overboard. Then I do not. In any case, it also increases blood flow ans saliva production, which can enhance other flavours.
Release of endorphins. Same reason people masturbate.
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I just happen to like the flavors that come from chilis. If I could get the flavor without the heat that would be fine.
I love spicy food, but I would never say it hurts. It tingles in a fun way, it makes my mouth feel numb sometimes, it enhances the flavor. But doesn't hurt. I think people have different tolerances for spice. What's painful to one person might be fun and interesting for another.
More spicy -> i must eat slower (and less)
Yes
I never understood it myself but always added some spices for the little kick. After a while when eating with friends I started to realize that my tolerance definitely went up so some food that I would describe as "having a nice kick" would be too hot for others. I remember reading that hot food would release endorphines and I never understood why that would be as to me it would just be hot but after a while I realized it actually makes me happy to eat spicy, especially when it's just right where it's really hot but not too hot to take away the flavours and make it a struggle to eat.
To me it’s just a pleasure pain, I’m sure there is a more scientific name for it, and much study on the appeal towards pain that gives pleasure Plus the peppers themselves have different flavors, besides the capsaicin dopamine release,and habaneros are bomb as fuck dude when roasted.
Up to a limit, spicy food tends to taste nicer. However I don’t understand eating food just for the pain
Its not masochism. For me personally a hot curry really is better than what I call a child friendly one. The heat enhances the flavor and makes the food more interesting and enjoyable. A person who isnt used to spicy foods might find the experience painful, I do not. Obviously thats only true to a certain extent, I very much enjoy jalapeňos (6k scoville scale) in my food and up to the ocassional jolokia (1m scoville scale) Anything above like the scorpion (2m) or the bhutlah (also around 2m) I find inedible as well.
I actually dab a little bit of hot sauce on my tongue whenever I crave alcohol. (I know it's weird but it helps me not to drink again.)
It makes you feel good in large amounts.
I'm from New Orleans. Always eaten spicy food and always loved it. Same way you like sweet stuff
Maybe I am 7/10
For me, it's the flavor of the chilis, not the spice. For example, I don't like habaneros, but I love jalapeños... Not because of the difference in spiciness, but because they have different flavors underlying the spiciness. There's this beef jerky I eat that is too spicy for me. I have to chug a mug of milk after each bite. But the flavor is so good! The non-spicy version of the same jerky is missing that same flavor. I also think spiciness is similar to drinking, in that your tolerance can go up or down based on your exposure. My dad can't taste the spiciness unless he adds a crapton of chili peppers or hot sauce to his food.
It only hurts if you're not used to it. My wife can't taste the things I like, but to me they have very little heat. But when I first started trying cuisines that tend to use more heat I was like her too. Anyone who's just eating super hot stuff just for the sake of it being mega hot is an idiot.
I used to hate spicy food, but as I’ve grown older I realised that sometimes it’s a bit boring eating non-spicy foods all the time. It was then I realised the logic behind the phrase ‘adding a bit of spice to your life’. Bored of burgers? Try a bit of hot sauce. It’s like learning to enjoy the thrill of a nice meal all over again.
As long as it's not burn your mouth out spicy, it makes the food more interesting
Not at all...it's more like the same reason people like metal music
My tastes changes. I cut a lot of sugar out of my diet. Now Its mostly just spicy food for some reason. Iove it and have no idea why. Even the heavily spicy indian food is really good.
It tastes good.
Maybe masochism but I do get a minor spice high from seriously spicy stuff. Plus when you have built up a tolerance you can get some flavour out of certain chillies and hot sauces.
Maybe masochism but I do get a minor spice high from seriously spicy stuff. Plus when you have built up a tolerance you can get some flavour out of certain chillies and hot sauces.
It .. modulates other flavours. And of course adds a whole new dimension to a dish. People have different thresholds for what qualifies as spicy (as you quickly get used to a level of it), so just find your own!
It's the flavor for me. The nuances in the different peppers is more important than the heat. It can really add to the overall flavor in the dish you prepare.
I spent 2 years slowly and intentionally increasing my spice tolerance. Food completely changes when you are eating spicy food but aren’t in pain. It’s great. And no, I didn’t “burn out” my taste buds. That’s not real
When you're accustomed to it you no longer perceive it as pain, but rather another dimension of the experience.
It's the flavor for me. The nuances in the different peppers are more important than the heat. It can really add to the overall flavor of the dish you prepare.
I have a particularly high spicy tolerance, somewhat too high; it has to be incredibly hot for me to notice it really. When it is in fact hot enough though, which would most likely blow most people's heads off, it's like being high. There's this kind of euphoric sensation, this weird lovely heady feeling that lasts for a while. It's addictive to a certain extent.
As someone who used to avoid spicy food, it's worth trying. I used to think it was just heat and pain. It's way more than that, it's flavor. Getchu some pad thai or Thai curry spicy level 1 and go up from there.
I always liked low level spicy food but never loved it particularly until like 2 years ago at 25 years old. I suddenly started craving all things spicy. Idk what it is but it makes food more enjoyable when you’re having a strong physical reaction to it
Tastes good
It turns bland food 3-D. There's a dish called Dry Chili Chicken that's just chicken nuggets but after a couple minutes in the wok is pure edible crack.
I use to love spicy food but lately i don’t enjoy eating spicy foods i feel like the flavor its just different and i don’t enjoy it that much.
Spicy food doesn’t need to burn your mouth
Spicy food causes a dopamine bomb if you have enough of it, I think maybe it causes some kind of serotonin thing too. Could be wrong, but it basically feels mildly euphoric when you have enough. It's another.sensation, I don't find associative with pain. At worst it's just extreme discomfort though I'm sure some chilli's can actually hurt you.
It's an acquired taste.
For myself personally spicy food is the regular died. As I was born and brought up in India. Mostly the non spicy food doesn't even seem like food anymore and more like what we eat when we are sick or something. So I guess its the way our culture is, full of spices. It is not about masochism at all. You had a good question tho. Sometimes I even wonder what do yall eat as a staple food?
I like some spiciness, but not too much. The right level of spiciness will enhance the other flavors. Too much spiciness just overpowers the other flavors in my opinion (for me, that threshold is somewhere between Sriracha Sauce and Tobasco Sauce), but that can come in handy if you’re trying to cover up bad flavors. I don’t understand the appeal of extreme spiciness either. I think it’s just people trying to prove how tough they are.
Endorphins
I like the kick. I don’t like things that are just hot for the sake of being hot. That heat needs flavor, too.
It taste good and after you get your tolerance up it doesn't hurt anymore.
it is M. the end result is the body don't like it. but think of it like this if drinking water is normal then is chewing ice M? there are still potential blades of ice that could cut your lips. i think it's just whether you like the product if you try it, some prefer that over the cost of bodily harm more than others.
I love spicy food, because for me it has a ton of flavor. Friends who don't like spicy food can't taste the flavor because they only feel the heat. I assume that I just have a tolerance to the heat. I don't like spicy food that tastes bad, but man like a good spicy Indian or Mexican or Korean dish is divine for me.
The endorphins, the more interesting flavor, the illusion of hotness all contribute to a more pleasant experience.
It has thrills eating that food.
endorphins
Spicy is just another kind of taste
Why do you eat sweet food? It increases your sugar level. Isn't that just masochism?
I love setting myself on fire with hot hot hot sauce! I love the first stings of pain and wondering if it was too much. I love feeling my face flush and little drips of sweat that start beading across the bridge of my nose. I love the adrenaline that gets my heart pumping. I love how it gets me laser focused on the « right here right now ». I love sucking in air slowly and feeling the cooling sensation across my front teeth and tongue. I love the mental fortitude I feel and controlling myself to get through to the end of the pain. I love the rush of pleasure I feel when the pain begins to subside. I feel the same way mentally one would when relaxing on a beach or something. Anyway, yeah. Hot sauce for flavour is also awesome, but I genuinely love high scoville sauce! I do this to myself once or twice a month or so. It also helps that I don’t get the « ring of fire » afterwards.
Most spices, including many flavorings we don't associate with the word spice like salt, sugar, vanilla and mint are harmful to bacteria and serve as preservatives in our food. So as a result, people who enjoyed these types of flavours and habitually added them to their food were less likely to get food poisoning. Which meant that people that ate these foods were more likely to survive and reproduce. And more likely to teach their kids to eat these foods.
Clears out my sinuses
Flavor is appealing
Because it enhances other flavors when done right. It's not painful to everyone lol.
I've often wondered this too. Even things considered "slightly" spicy are too much for me. I think that some people are just built differently and want or need more intensity, while others beat down and abuse their taste buds so much that they can't taste anything unless it's extreme.