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Why do some humans love chili peppers?
- evnix 4y agoshouldn't it be most humans? China and India and most of asia have chilli peppers and so does africa. It is the minority that cannot tolerate chillies. prior to chillies, black pepper, ginger and garlic was used and if used in appropriate quantities gives you a similar result. chillies are just a lot more economical to grow.
- robin_reala 4y agoSichuan pepper too; widely used across east Asia for a long time.
- qikInNdOutReply 4y ago? It was imported from the new world around 1700 so 300 years.. not really a long time, just as new as the us.
- biggc 4y agoSichuan Peppercorn is not a new world chili, and is endemic to Asia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanthoxylum_armatum https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanthoxylum_armatum
- eloisius 4y agoSichuan peppercorns, not chili peppers. Although I don't know why gp provided them as an example. They aren't the slightest bit hot, they just have a tingly numbing sensation and a nice flavor.
- tintedfireglass 4y agoginger, black pepper or long pepper could be a better example
- tintedfireglass 4y agoSichuan pepper is native to Asia and is a citrus species. it is an old world plant.
- Cthulhu_ 4y agoWhy do people refer to it as new / old world when it's been around and inhabited since forever? It's a weird misnomer, just like calling its inhabitants Indians, and just like calling countries 3rd world.
- qikInNdOutReply 4y agoIts pretty universal though, all people have preconceptions like that. Like chinese tourists, calling home the mainland and the inhabitants of the visited country "foreigners". Its more prevalent in huge countries or ex empires though. Super annoying when your country is small and you have to adapt to these wrong pre conceptions because the other side gets insulted, if you call them "just another country among many".
- tintedfireglass 4y agopick a chilli from a plant and eat it like how an animal would do in the wild. you'll want to jump into a pond after that. The chilli plant evolved in such a way that humans don't like chilli pepper. Humans used cooking and drying and diluting and other modern methods to reduce the ill-effects of spices and enjoy its flavors in small quantities.
- OJFord 4y agoI occasionally have them raw in salads, though more often pickled (still technically raw I suppose). Chopped up and cooked in something too of course. I don't think that's unusual of me.
- tintedfireglass 4y agoBut would you eat chilli peppers like how you'd eat other fruits and veggies? Say tomatoes or beets. No. ofcourse not.
- OJFord 4y agoI eat raw but pickled chillies far more frequently than raw tomatoes. (I never eat raw beetroot so I'll leave that, though I'm surprised people do. Or are 'beets' not beetroot?) I eat raw and not even pickled chillies in salads or on the side of a plate of other food at least as much as tomatoes the same way. More often pickled, but that's largely for convenience, in no small part for extra vinegary flavour, and not really at all to make them more mild. But I already said that above and you clearly don't believe me. I don't think it's uncommon either, fwiw, I'm not at all claiming to be unique or anything like it.
- gumby 4y agoWhen I was a kid we use to eat them by plucking them from a tree, dipping them in salt, and then devouring them. It was just something people did.
- idkwhoiam 4y agoWell you don't eat potatoes raw do you? Nor do you eat an eggplant raw and many others. I don't understand the argument here
- orangetuba 4y agoCan't tolerate? The world champions in chili eating contests are caucasian.
- Barrin92 4y agoI think that's less tolerance for spices and more just white guys being into weird frat house style competitions. I mean can you imagine a black Jackass
- boredumb 4y agoworld star
- unmole 4y ago
- bloqs 4y agoThis is uncharitable to the genetic diversity in the implied western competition. If there was a difference, it would express itself immediately
- unmole 4y ago
- samatman 4y agoWhat is the aim of your chaotic and pugnacious dialogue here? Is it to prove that foreigners aren't invited to the eat chiles championship? To get proof that there are not-white people in the US? Just being cantankerous?
- unmole 4y ago> What is the aim of your chaotic and pugnacious dialogue here? To point out the absurdity of this statement: > The world champions in chili eating contests are caucasian. You'll note that I did not bring race into the picture. Tolerance and preference for chilies in all probability has more to due with nurture than nature The OP decided that minority had an ethnic connotation.
- 2Gkashmiri 4y agoI live in the Indian subcontinent. As long as I can remember, I have HIGHLY DISLIKED eating spicy food to a point when my sibling and I were kids, there used to be 2 dishes for lunch/dinner, one for the adults and one for kids. This is VERY unusual in our culture because kids are, out of this "practice of cooking 2 dishes" that parents train their kids to "eat chilli" from when they are very young. They are "trained" from a young age. I probably had that done to me and they realized, "ah shucks. Let it be" and here I am today. I take milk with my dinner when the food is spicy because that has always helped me. The problem is, I am often ridiculed for not ensuring the spice of red chilli. The day before, my parents "challenged" me to eat dinner without chilli for a month because according to them, "our body wants chilli". Mine doesn't. edit: just to clarify, our spice cabinet in our home is an absolute monster, we have dozens of common and exotic spices which we use "on a daily basis" so even highly spicy food isn't the problem for me. "red chilli" in particular is troubling.
- HeyLaughingBoy 4y agoMaybe you have an allergy? For all of my life, I absolutely hated shrimp. Even smelling it from across a room would make me want to vomit. Then when I was in my mid-20's, I developed an allergy to crabs (which previously I loved) and I realized that reaction was the same I'd had to shrimp all those years.
- 2Gkashmiri 4y agouh, not "allergy" levels. i dont get anything troubling. i mean when i have food with lots of red chilli, i feel like i "dont want to stand the burning sensation". most people have a higher tolerance than me but i would prefer if it werent testing my tolerance. its not like i cant or wont eat food with boatloads of red chilli.... i have a relative who takes red chilli powder, mixes some water and takes that with plain rice. that's "comfort food" for him, not for me...
- nicolas_t 4y agoWhat's interesting is that even among cultures that eat very spicy food, some absolutely cannot tolerate it. I have a friend from Chengdu and some friends in Malaysia who cannot eat anything spicy. It makes it hard for them to eat food outside and they've had to learn by trial and error the restaurants that can actually limit the amount of spiciness.
- JohnFen 4y agoI've found that my tolerance for spicy depends entirely on the spice. Chili peppers? Intolerable to me. Even "mild" dishes are too uncomfortable, and anything spicier is impossible for me to eat. On the other hand, horseradish or wasabi is no problem even in high concentrations. Black pepper is no problem as well. It seems to me that there must be a biochemical reason for the differences.
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoWhy do we need a study for something that obvious ? The answer is simple... They make good music. Edit: forgot you are not supposed to joke on HN
- hombre_fatal 4y agoIt just has to be a good joke.
- tintedfireglass 4y agoHumans don't like chilli pepper. It literally burns our mouth. We enjoy the burning feeling in small quantities.
- dusted 4y agoI don't like pizza, it literally makes me fat. I enjoy the taste of pizza in large quantities.
- tintedfireglass 4y agoThe plant has evolved capsaicin as an animal deterrent as only birds can disperse chilli pepper seeds while animals digest the seeds. No other animal other than humans like chilli. Humans are an exception because we cook our food and cooking alters food chemistry in a such way that spices become desirable when mixed with meat or vegetables. You won't be able to eat even 50g of ripe red chillies freshly plucked from the chilli shrub.
- seszett 4y ago> The plant has evolved capsaicin as an animal deterrent as only birds can disperse chilli pepper seeds while animals digest the seeds. That's a common explanation but the article links to a study that supports another explanation, capsaicin having likely evolved for its antimicrobial properties instead: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0802691105 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0802691105
- tintedfireglass 4y agoIt is an interesting study but why would an anti-microbial agent act as an animal deterrent. A goat or a monkey would disperse the seeds if not for capsaicin. I feel that there was some evolutionary pressure for selecting against animals consuming the fruit or else only some animals would feel effects of capsaicin and others would not.
- deleted 4y ago
- worldshit 4y agoIs there some secret trick to avoid trouble the day after?
- colordrops 4y agoNot connecting the eating with the subsequent suffering.
- F2hP18Foam 4y agoThis is legitimately my tactic, and yet I still wonder why my dog attempts to eat things that cause him issues. Maybe he has a better understanding of the risks and rewards than I gave him credit for.
- howlin 4y agoFor medium and somewhat hot peppers, the rule is pretty simple. Don't eat more than you are willing to chew. Mostly this is a problem of eating whole seeds or big chunks of pepper you aren't actually chewing up and digesting. Once you go hot enough, this won't matter. But I guess it's part of the experience.
- novaRom 4y agoOr simply skip eating it, just cut one chilli and put it into your soup/curry.
- Maraguy 4y agoWhat trouble?
- worldshit 4y agodiarrhea and irritation of anus/emorrhoids
- kaashif 4y agoI've never encountered this problem in real life, only on online forums, so I don't have any firsthand experience. Maybe if you just eat spicy food every day you'll eventually get used to it and not have that problem? I've eaten (what some may describe as) spicy food for probably more than 90% of the meals in my life and it doesn't bother me.
- beautifulfreak 4y agoI thought the author would revisit the 90s discovery of "supertasters," people who have a heightened sense of taste. (People who like hot peppers usually have a diminished taste sensitivity and are not supertasters.) https://apnews.com/article/ee0a2d08c57a937913c86f53541d0e80 https://apnews.com/article/ee0a2d08c57a937913c86f53541d0e80 https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/accounting-for-taste/ https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/accounting-for-taste/
- rob74 4y agoNot convinced about that - first, spiciness is not a taste, because it affects the heat/pain receptors on your tongue rather than the taste buds. Of course, the sensitivity for spiciness varies a lot between individuals, and maybe it correlates with the sensitivity for taste. Second, it might be the other way around: people with diminished taste sensitivity appreciate spicy food because it adds some variety for them, but that doesn't mean people with normal or even heightened taste sensitivity can't appreciate spicy food.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- renewiltord 4y agoNo 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.
- indymike 4y ago> 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.
- slater 4y agoGo on, what's the recipe? :D
- amelius 4y agoReminded me of the old internet joke: https://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/01/Nov/chili.html https://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/01/Nov/chili.html
- randStr_ 4y agoWell, chili is not chilling at all for some people.
- vanderZwan 4y agoThe article briefly mentions Paul Rozin, but his "benign masochism" framework is actually a more general theoretical explanation for why people like (apparent) negative experiences. It's quite interesting [0]. I'm trying to find an older paper by him where he goes into peppers more specifically. One thing I remember from it is that he notes that our enjoyment of spicy food is localised. I like the burning sensation of peppers in my mouth, not elsewhere on my body. [0] https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=musichtc_facpub https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article...
- samatman 4y agoCapsicum patches are popular with athletes, a partner of mine would put them on her lower back when ballet would get strenuous. We would sometimes forget about that before sex, and the capsicum would migrate. Neither of us enjoyed that much. So we can rule the other mucous membranes out, for (almost!) everyone, but it can be pleasant over sore muscles.
- brokenkebab2 4y agoSummary: the linked text doesn't answer the headline question. It's more a literary excercise
- TheFattestNinja 4y agoI didn't know this was a thing until I met my partner, who has it (and so does her mother), but there is a couple conditions called fissured tongue and geographic tongue ( ex. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fissured_tongue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fissured_tongue ) which effectively means that her tongue is a lot more sensitive to salt/pepper/spicy than average. To the point where black/white pepper alone might give the same intensity chilli gives to a "normal" person. There are many reasons for the variance.
- runescimitar 4y agoHoly trypophobia
- wil421 4y ago> The prevalence of the condition increases significantly with age, occurring in 40% of the population after the age of 40. Yikes! I love chilis and peppers. Couldnt imagine having this condition although my wife and kids may appreciate less spicy food.
- euroderf 4y agoYup, seeds out, and optimally the soft white interior membranes too.
- HeyLaughingBoy 4y agoA dental hygienist pointed out to me that I had geographic tongue when I was about 26 or so. I've been eating hot chilies since I was a child. Although, as I've gotten older I have noticed that eating too much at once will upset my stomach.
- Avshalom 4y agoI dunno, i have fissured tongue (10-20% more visually dramatic than the Wikipedia headline photo) and i have the far and away the highest tolerance (for garlic/pepper/chile) of any of my family. Might just be a coincidence with your partner.
- viciousvoxel 4y ago
- michaelsbradley 4y agoI’ve always enjoyed the chili tasting interviews produced by Chili Klaus: https://youtube.com/c/ChiliKlausDK/videos https://youtube.com/c/ChiliKlausDK/videos There’s such a lovely range of human reactions to eating those little spicy-fruity peppers.
- ridgered4 4y agoI 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.
- JulianRaphael 4y agoThese two papers give a much better answer than this blog: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389041720300772 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/ 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 infections (something our ancestors had to deal with a lot), eating chili triggers an endorphin high, but regularly eating chili makes you less sensitive and hence you have to eat more chili to get your little high. Taken together, these two properties of chili most likely have been the main drivers of it being adopted as a staple food in many cultures.
- playingalong 4y ago> eating chili triggers an endorphin high, but regularly eating chili makes you less sensitive and hence you have to eat more chili to get your little high I wonder what is the evolutionary reason for that. The older you are, the more defense you needed against bacteria?
- short_sells_poo 4y agoI always thought that the endorphin high is unrelated to the beneficial effect: any strong pain is normally followed by a release of endorphins to compensate. It's why pain and pleasure are often difficult to disentangle. A strong dose of capsaicin will induce a painful sensation in the mouth (you'll feel like burning), which is compensated by a release of endorphins.
- scns 4y agoTaste sensitivity declines with age. Strong flavours like smelly cheese are disgusting for kids but enjoyed by older adults.
- fauria 4y agoThey are enjoyed by adults who acquired that taste: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_taste https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_taste For instance, it would be really hard to find anyone, no matter how old, who enjoys surströmming or hákarl without having become acquitted with them.
- QuantumSeed 4y agoApparently some animals love it as well. I lived in New Mexico in the heart of green chili country for many years, and it was not uncommon then for deer to jump over, chew through, or break down fences to get to chili plants.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- stared 4y agoWell, 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 pleasure-seeking and pain-avoidance.
- cpach 4y agoThis. A former co-worker loved chili. He also loved psychedelic mushrooms and other drugs, and he pondered if there was some kind of connection there, that perhaps it was the case that chili gave him a way to experience a similar kind of thrill in a safer, more controlled way.
- morelisp 4y agoTeach me, chile, and I shall Learn. Take me, chile, and I shall Escape. Focus my eyes, chile, and I shall See. I feel no pain, for the chile is my teacher. I feel no pain, for the chile takes me beyond myself. I feel no pain, for the chile gives me sight.
- potamic 4y agoDo 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.
- jaywalk 4y ago> Do people really feel a flood of endorphins? Yes.
- adolph 4y agoMaybe that wonderful sensation combination of "oh this is too spicy" and "oh I need some more of that" is like the runners high that some people just don't get. HEB Carolina Reaper Puffs were my last moment of the combination: https://spicyfoodreviews.com/2020/12/spicy-snacks-h%E2%80%91e%E2%80%91b-carolina-reaper-pepper-cheese-puffs https://spicyfoodreviews.com/2020/12/spicy-snacks-h%E2%80%91...
- bamboozled 4y agoBecause a lot of meals a more bland than we like so we like to spice it up ?
- _8j50 4y agoIt'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.
- ankaAr 4y agoTheir songs are nice(?
- erellsworth 4y agoBecause they hurt so good.
- Pr0ject217 4y agoI love spicy food, but the older that I get, the more my body (stomach/digestive system) does not agree with it. It's an unfortunate state of affairs.
- tmcw 4y agoI mean, I get it, like I can't imagine being new to the scene and starting with "Unlimited Love" or something as your first listen, but of course - if you were there for the "Mothers Milk" era, it's obvious why you'd like the peppers.
- djhaskin987 4y agoI have a deviated septum and allergies. My nose gets plugged up pretty quickly. Peppers make it much easier to keep things clear up there. It gets to the point where I start to crave peppers. I rarely eat a meal without some kind of hot sauce. I've been leaning more towards Sriracha until this year's shortage, then reverted to Tabasco.
- lock-the-spock 4y agoTry making your own sauces! Fry some chillies with a lot of oil and add some salt - that's it. In a glass that lasts forever. You can add other spices or e.g. peanuts or small tofu pieces for more flavour and texture. Works with fresh chillies but also with dried ones, which makes it super cheap - you'll get a kg bag at your local Indian/chinese shop for next to nothing. ou can vary it with different ingredients, powder vs chopped vs whole chillies, remove the seeds for more fruity and less spicy flavour, .. Store the result in a strong condiment/jam glass (you don't want it leaking..). Also makes a great gift.
- igou 4y agoI've been growing chilis for 3 years and it's slowly become my hobby that gives me the most satisfaction. Most varieties (Especially Capsicum Chinense, the species that most superhots come from) calibrate very well to small spaces/resources. It's an incredibly satisfying hobby that gives an opportunity to get very technical with something without involving backlit screens, a wonderful social lubricant.
- bayofpigs 4y ago
- thenoblesquid 4y agoThe YouTube show Hot Ones opened me up to a whole new world of hot sauces that bring the heat along with great flavor.
- simonebrunozzi 4y ago> Peppers containing capsaicin—such as the Scotch bonnets used in Jamaican beef patties (shown here)—not only appeal to the tastebuds, they also can help preserve foods that otherwise might spoil. Here it is, as expected.
- zentrus 4y agoBecause they are "Red Hot"?
- rocket_surgeron 4y agoMy question isn't "why do some humans love chili peppers"? Spicy is tasty. My question is "why do some people love ASSBLASTER 9000 NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST hot sauce"? You know, the kind that comes with a warning on it. The difference is like sipping on a cocktail while the guy next to you chugs pure ethanol.
- virgildotcodes 4y agoAs a guy who loves assblaster sauce, it’s just so good. Not entirely sure I can communicate why I love super spicy stuff, but I do love the flavor of most chilis, and the intensity of the experience borders on the euphoric when the fumes are causing nearby people to react like they’ve been tear gassed. I guess it’s a delicious way to get high? Unfortunately after all this time my colon has not gotten nearly as desensitized to the heat as the other side of my GI tract.
- everforward 4y agoOut of curiosity, what's your experience of the effects? I tried a toothpick covered in that hot sauce that comes in a flashbang-like container, and the pain was serious. Not intolerable, but akin to a burn that would blister all over the inside of my mouth. Do you feel less pain than that? Or is the pain just worth it?
- virgildotcodes 4y agoSo based on my experiences with friends and family, I do experience less pain and am less sensitive to spice than them. There will be things that I am genuinely unaware are spicy but friends and family are telling me it's hot, but I think there's also the aspect that when it starts to get really hot I just enjoy the intensity of the sensation and pain. The super mild stuff, like tabasco, tapatio, sriracha, cholula etc, I can sense the spice but it's mostly just about the flavor. Like I can literally drink the stuff straight out of a glass and it's like chili flavored vinegar, with only a bit of heat as it hits my throat. Straight jalapenos just taste kind of sweet and fruity to me, with just a hint of spice, but these are some of my favorite just on flavor alone. Bird's eye chili, thai chilis be they fresh or dried or in vinegar, feel only a bit hotter than tabasco/jalapenos to me. On my recent trip to Thailand I really wanted to find a place that would blow me away with heat. I would always ask for everything 10/10 thai spicy, and I got to the point where I was additionally just covering my noodles/curries with a 0.5 cm thick layer of whatever fresh/dried chili they'd have on hand, and then adding more throughout the meal, to the horror of the poor vendors/chefs. It just tastes great, really love the flavors of the chilis but it doesn't honestly taste that much spicier to me than tabasco or jalapenos (which is why I kept adding more to try to get it spicier). Every time I eat at a restaurant that has a spice scale I always go for 5/5, 10/10, nuclear/danger/whatever, and 9.5/10 times I will be disappointed. I get the feeling that most restaurants just err on the safe side so that people don't return the food for being too spicy. For some reason habaneros to me are a real jump up. Some really pure habanero purees can get pretty damn spicy. I still douse my food in it, but this is where I can really start sweating and breathing through my mouth. For whatever weird reason I still find it super enjoyable but definitely straddling the border of pain/pleasure. I got a Hot Ones variety box including the Last Dab, and I was just using that as regular hot sauce for my pizza and burritos. Like a good 1-2 teaspoons per bite? Honestly for whatever reason less spicy than some of the habanero sauces I've had. Have not tried straight ghost peppers/carolina reapers yet. For some reason they scare me, but I'd love to if I came across them.
- audiometry 4y agoI like the taste of spicy food. But 8 hours later my guts are in misery. Any fixes? I asked my stomach/bowel doctor and he said he had the same problem. Knew of no solution.