17 ms·

Capsaicin is a psychoactive substance

225 points by stared 4y ago

chobytes 4y ago
Eating super spicy food definitely leaves me feeling kind of drunk. Have met others who have this and others who doesnt believe me/think Im exaggerating.
PaulHoule 4y ago
I've seen hints in literature written in the 19th century that some people ate red pepper to get high. To enjoy Capsaicin as a stimulant mix copious amounts of the powdered red pepper with honey. Taking it for a few days screws up my stomach though.
- ReptileMan 4y ago
  How exactly does it screws you up?
  - klyrs 4y ago
    It plays hell on all of the mucous membranes it comes into contact with, stomach and intestines included. I'm not sure if it can give you an ulcer, but in my experience, if you've already got one, it can be debilitatingly painful.
    - fknorangesite 4y ago
      > I'm not sure if it can give you an ulcer No, it cannot. > The most common causes of peptic ulcers are infection with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and naproxen sodium (Aleve). Stress and spicy foods do not cause peptic ulcers. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/peptic-ulcer/symptoms-causes/syc-20354223 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/peptic-ulcer/...
      - klyrs 4y ago
        Thanks! Doctors aren't always clear on the difference between treatment of symptoms and addressing the cause.
        taeric 4y ago
        It is also a surprisingly recent learning on the cause. Such that many older doctors and family members probably still remember the old thinking.
  - PaulHoule 4y ago
    (1) Heartburn, (2) Ass pain when it comes out the other side.
    - mmmpop 4y ago
      I used to adore spicy food and about 4/5 Thai spicy was my jam. But sometime in my late-20s my body decided it didn't like it anymore and now if I so much as smell a pathetic jalapeño I have to run to the bathroom. I can eat a couple pickled peppers and get away with it but even "mild+" at whatever Asian establishment is too much. It's really quite tragic.
_xnmw 4y ago
So spicy South Asian food is a drug addiction?
- rjbwork 4y ago
  Absolutely. I continue to imbibe in increasing quantities despite the negative digestive effects.
  - Moissanite 4y ago
    Which cracks first, your mind or the toilet bowl?
    - 35amxn35 4y ago
      My ass, unironically. Thanks God for bidets
    - ReptileMan 4y ago
      A good curry burns twice ...
    - rjbwork 4y ago
      Honestly, I have eaten some insanely hot peppers and sauce. The whole "coming out" thing is not really a problem for me. What is a problem, is that I have some acid reflux issues, and if I'm not careful about when I eat spicy food and when I go to bed, and neglect to take either an antacid or drink some milk/eat some yogurt after a session of very spicy food, I can end up in severe pain.
- brodouevencode 4y ago
  I am addicted to Indian food, but live in an area where it's an hour+ drive to get some.
hbrav 4y ago
I suppose the UK government could choose to use this line of argument combined with the 2016 Psychoactive Substances act to ban spicy curries: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/psychoactive-substances-act-2016-guidance-for-researchers/psychoactive-substances-act-2016-guidance-for-researchers https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/psychoactive-subs...
- snoot 4y ago
  It would be hard to ban a national dish.
  - BaronVonSteuben 4y ago
    Won't somebody please think of the children??
    - ispo 4y ago
      What is wrong with my kid eating curry?
      - c7DJTLrn 4y ago
        It's a joke about how the UK government pushes incredibly authoritarian laws using the safety of children as a trojan horse.
        ispo 4y ago
        Oh such a good joke!!!! Thanks for showing me the twist. I remember the funny safety conversations at tennis matches after a few drops of rain.
        throwawaylinux 4y ago
        Turns out just about everybody, all around the world, loves authoritarian laws when they agree with the alleged goal, or when the psychological propaganda worked on them. If it's not the children, it's grandma, or someone else. Turns out there are a small number of actual anti-authoritarians who have always been consistent. And then there are countless hangers-on who proclaim to be an anti-authoritarian resistance when it suits them. It's funny, the fact people co-opt it shows that they see it as a noble and worthy ideology, yet it's still one they're happy to discard the minute some talking head put on TV by a corporation tells them to be outraged.
xnx 4y ago
Homer knows this: https://youtu.be/f4VzXNRUN1I?t=100 https://youtu.be/f4VzXNRUN1I?t=100
rob74 4y ago
> Then, while there is still some residual burning sensation remaining, the flush of endorphins gives this blissful, albeit a bit drunk, state (“Live is beautiful, I love you all, awesome…”). Or, as they say in German, "es ist schön, wenn der Schmerz nachlässt" (it's great when the pain goes away). Then again, you also wouldn't intentionally hit your finger with a hammer to experience this feeling - so my approach to spicy food is "know your limit": I enjoy it in moderate amounts, but keep away from the kind of spicyness where after a few bites you feel like your mouth is on fire and you can't taste the food anymore...
- allemagne 4y ago
  >Then again, you also wouldn't intentionally hit your finger with a hammer to experience this feeling This actually sounds related to some of the reasoning behind "cutting" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-harm#Pathophysiology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-harm#Pathophysiology
- stared 4y ago
  I think there are two different states when the pain goes away - relief and euphory. These can be mistaken occasionally - as in the Rabbi and the goat joke/parable. But in most cases, it is clear if a state would be desirable if there were no discomfort before. (As a side note, it is why I am skeptical about people praising the Kambo ceremony - taking a frog poison.) Ad hammer - I mention that in another blog post (curious if you refer to this or if it is a nice coincidence). In any case, there is a difference if something is only a temporary discomfort or causes long-term harm. Instead of using a hammer, one can get spanked or (safely) flogged.
- bergenty 4y ago
  The difference is you’re not causing any damage to your body when you eat spicy food unlike hitting your finger with a hammer.
  - jordigh 4y ago
    Your body can react to the pain excitation in some slightly harmful ways, such as diarrhea, overproduction of mucus, altered digestion, etc. True, the capsaicin itself doesn't harm your body, but the pain can in itself cause some slight damage (and like any drug, an overdose of capsaicin can be very dangerous).
SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
A local fried chicken restaurant calls their spiciest chicken WNFA (we're not fucking around), and it's exactly as it says on the tin. When I have enough of it and I've gotten past the initial "why am I doing this? this is stupid, I should stop," I genuinely experience a form of euphoria. The next day is sheer hell though, so I don't do it often. And that's how boring my life is, occasionally eating fried chicken to get mildly high.
- JasonFruit 4y ago
  I'm assuming you mean fried chicken: you should only eat food chicken, not friend chicken.
  - FredPret 4y ago
    Chicken as cattle not pet?
    - Crespyl 4y ago
      Truly a fowl play. I wonder if we ever start to see application-specific biocomputing systems integrated into server farms, we might really start calling our servers "livestock".
  - CaptainNegative 4y ago
    friends not food
    - nobody9999 4y ago
      >friends not food Mildly OT, but reminds me of this iconic scene[0] from Roger & Me[1]. In some ways, (the movie[1], not the clip[0]) doesn't hold up too well. In others, it's still spot on IMHO. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ff68dXFsc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ff68dXFsc [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_%26_Me https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_%26_Me
      - 4y ago
twobitshifter 4y ago
There are quite a few psychoactive foods, nutmeg, chocolate, bad rye bread, and a “dream fish” https://www.mashed.com/26985/foods-actually-mess-head/ https://www.mashed.com/26985/foods-actually-mess-head/
- klondike_klive 4y ago
  Recommend against nutmeg. The comedown wasn't worth it.
  - the_only_law 4y ago
    Isn’t it a deliriant? I won’t touch those.
    - jb_s 4y ago
      I do know the active ingredient is cytotoxic / potentially neurotoxic. Definitely avoid.
    - klondike_klive 4y ago
      I was young and in a pretty ropey state of mind, living in a drab town in the Midlands in the sleety grey winter. A friend had tried it before which is where I got the idea. It tasted nasty and bitter, unsurprisingly for something you use by the pinch. Within an hour or two I became unpleasantly high, which made me regret what I'd done and worry myself into a classic bad trip state. It lasted for a long time, don't remember much of the evening, went to bed, couldn't sleep, missed an awards ceremony. Next three days I was like a zombie - heart racing even sitting still, cotton-mouth, trouble stringing words together. Along with galloping shame and self-loathing. To this day my friends give me shit me about it, whenever nutmeg is mentioned. I count myself lucky that it wasn't worse and that I still have friends from that time.
k__ 4y ago
Some people on Hot Ones really look like they're trippin
suzzer99 4y ago
I recently learned that there was basically no spicy-hot food in the Old World before Columbus. Apparently Indian black pepper, or something called long pepper which has a little more kick, were the hottest spices around. Can anyone confirm or deny this? The internet seems to agree. It still seems crazy to me.
- wazoox 4y ago
  Mustard, horseradish are pretty strong, however it's a entirely distinct sensation from chili.
  - zikduruqe 4y ago
    "It's not even the same sport" - Jules from Pulp Fiction. /s Allyl isothiocyanateallyl isothiocyanateAllyl isothiocyanate (AITC) is the organosulfur compound with the formula CH2CHCH2NCS that gives horseradish its unique flavor.
- FooHentai 4y ago
  Mustard was around from the early Romans/Gauls I think, if that counts.
- aidenn0 4y ago
  I can confirm that chili (and bell) peppers are new-world plants. They got the name "pepper" as an analogy to the main source of spiciness, black-pepper, which is from an old-world plant. In fact I believe the only nightshade used as food in the old-word was the Eggplant, with potatoes and tomatoes also being new-world. So prior to 1492, there was no tomato in Italian food and no chili in Thai food.
  - yamtaddle 4y ago
    Potatoes, maize/corn, tomatoes, chile peppers, chocolate. Old-world food was a hell of a lot more boring before the Columbian exchange. It transformed food so much that most of what we think of as "traditional" cuisines in various old-world countries or regions are largely products of the 16th century or later. The exchange also cut the rate and severity of previously-regular famines dramatically, enabling a huge population boom and economic expansion (see: Mann's 1493). Mainly due to maize and potatoes, maize being incredibly efficient on a calories-per-acre basis, and potatoes being stupid-easy to grow almost anywhere, having decent caloric content and not-bad nutrient profile (gotta eat the skin, though) and being easy to store for the medium-term to cover gaps when other crops fail (you just... leave them in the ground)
Tade0 4y ago
I grew up in a family that ate spicy food on a regular basis. So much so that we had one case where the waiter, seeing children at the table, advised us against taking what we wanted, namely a pizza named "diablo". I watched him as he waited to intervene a few steps from us, platter in hand. Eventually he gave up. In any case my experience, after 30 years of eating spicy food, is that I apparently don't feel the usual effects people who like spicy food do. What happens instead is that the spice forces me to eat slower and thus get more flavour out of the dish. After all, "spicy" is technically not a flavour, so it mixes well with just about anything. I did have a period of gradually increasing the dose, though, at the end of which I discovered that capsaicin is also excreted through urine. It is not a pleasant experience.
- orev 4y ago
  Capsaicin receptors also get “used up” over periods of long exposure, so you become less sensitive to the sensation. It sounds like you’ve been exposed to it your whole life, so have simply adjusted to it. If you abstained for an extended period of time (6 months?) that Diablo pizza would probably blow your head off.
  - saiya-jin 4y ago
    I've noticed ie in India that long time exposure severely numbs all your taste buds, so folks end up over-salting, over-sweetening etc. which definitely goes in bad direction re long term health. Or one can accept that non-spicy foods taste very bland, which is rather sad world TBH. Many ie french are like this, they politely refuse going extreme re chilli, but once you get to fine tastes of that cuisine that would be completely gone you understand them. And join them, even as Indian/curry food lover
    - ilyt 4y ago
      Kinda why I don't care for spicy food, it feels to me like bandaid for not making food actually tasty in the first place without the spiciness...
hardwaregeek 4y ago
The combination of spicy and numbing that the Chinese call málà is particularly mind bending. The tingly numbing enhances the spice which enhances the tingly numbing. A proper Sichuan hot pot is practically a drug (and indeed in some cases people have been known to use poppy in the broth, at least according to Fuchsia Dunlop).
- rippercushions 4y ago
  That's thanks to capsaicin's buddy sanshool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool
thomasskis 4y ago
I’m not sure it’s directly psychoactive as he stated in the post, it does agonise the TRPV1 receptor; but that doesn’t directly create a sense euphoria. When agonised it triggers the production of endogenous anandamides and those anandamides bind to the CB1 receptor which is responsible for euphoric feelings. Vanillin does the same thing. So does dancing and some forms of yoga. But foods like cacao (or significantly dark chocolate) directly contain anandamides which cause euphoria. Cacao also has re-uptake inhibitors that make the euphoric feeling last a lot longer. This is why ancient civilisations like the Olmecs, Aztecs, and Mayans would mix drinks of cacao, vanilla, and capsaicin. And modern Mexican chocolate often mixes in pepper. Without Cacao the anandamide induced euphoria is very short lived.
mmmpop 4y ago
I remember vividly when Flamin' Hot Cheetos came out (where I lived) and the ruckus they caused at my middle school. We inexplicably had vending machines full of junk food in the main lobby and kids would line up to empty the machines within minutes of lunch hour starting since, at the least, they only turned them on at lunch. They were eventually banned because some administrator discovered that kids were getting "high" from them, and replaced with regular Cheetos. Good job.
justinlloyd 4y ago
Brassica plants, taste and smell, make me physically nauseous. I theorize that this is a genetic disposition. Asparagus makes your urine smell of fresh mown grass, except that mine doesn't, and I cannot detect that odour in another person's urine after they have ate asparagus. We... uh... ran some experiments to determine this. I theorized for a few years that this was a genetic thing, and sure enough, research published recently (in the past three years) bears this out. My wife thinks that cilantro tastes of soap. And I theorized this is a genetic disposition. Research in the past few years bears this out. But cilantro to me, is a mild hallucinogenic and also a skin irritant. Which I theorized was a genetic response. And sure enough, in the past few years, research indicates that cilantro on certain people can act as an hallucinogenic. I have gained an appreciation for Mexican food more so of late.
- cwkoss 4y ago
  Could you describe the nature of cilantro hallucinations? Visual? Closed eye or open eye? Auditory? I've never heard of someone having this kind of reaction to cilantro and find it fascinating.
  - justinlloyd 4y ago
    Cilantro contains thujone which is a neurotoxin, the same as found in absinthe. So I'm kinda like a dolphin using a puffer fish to get high. There are various studies in this compound, and others, and it is a controlled compound regulated by the EU. I have independent verification by friends who are scientists and medical doctors at one gathering who have conducted observations that my pupils dilate, my eyes become bloodshot and, in the words of one observer, "I become more whoo-whoo. Whooo! Whoooooooo!" whatever that means. As my normal demeanour flips between "I don't want to be around people, you're all so tiring, I just want to be quiet" and a hyperactive Robin Williams amped up on caffeine and sugar, I am guessing I become even more "Whoooo! Whooooooooooooo! Let's par-tehhh!" I am probably over-compensating for something. The video recordings are cringeworthy. We've done independent blind tests of "is this psychosomatic" or do I truly have a reaction. Multiple blind tests of a single subject (me) by multiple qualified observers over the course of several days do indeed bear out that I have an unintended reaction to cilantro, the oils from cilantro and the active ingredients in cilantro. Direct contact of the cilantro on my skin makes my skin itch and become red and bumpy. When I imbibe even small amounts of cilantro, no more than you would get in a standard serving with a meal, to me, it feels like I am drunk and whoozy for about 20 or so minutes before the effects pass. Again, to reiterate, I suspect my extreme reaction to cilantro is genetic and gives me a sensitivity and reaction that most of the population doesn't have, much like some of the population also detects cilantro tasting of soap. Though I suspect these are very different genetic markers.
bastardoperator 4y ago
I ate a Carolina Reaper pepper. Once. It's the not spice that got me, it wasn't that bad. It's the aftermath of feeling like complete shit hours later that ruined it for me. My stomach hurt a lot, and while this is probably TMI, even my urine was spicy. Now I just stick to the normal flavorful spicy stuff, no more stupid spicy.
- TheMerovingian 4y ago
  Fiery urine is normal for folks that eat a lot of spicy foods.
  - lazide 4y ago
    As in, it hurts to pee? Or it hurts to be peed on?
    - rad_gruchalski 4y ago
      It hurts to pee. And it feels like you are leaking after peeing. It’s quite a funny feeling.
      - bastardoperator 4y ago
        For me it felt like I put hot sauce on my junk, it was not pleasant.
        rad_gruchalski 4y ago
        I cannot relate, not a familiar feeling.
aliqot 4y ago
I can't wait till the western world capitalizes on numbing spice like pink pepper the way the east does. Folks love to focus on capsaicin, but it's just one piece of the puzzle.
- dendrite9 4y ago
  I plan on trying to grow some of these flowers next year to see how numbing they are to eat. It looks like they are not had to grow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acmella_oleracea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acmella_oleracea
lathyrus_long 4y ago
I'm not sure that's how I perceive capsaicin myself; but the guy who bred the Carolina Reaper is a recovering addict (in the usual sense, street drugs and alcohol), and he certainly describes his creations in similar terms: https://honeysucklemag.com/smokin-ed-currie-peppers-addiction/ https://honeysucklemag.com/smokin-ed-currie-peppers-addictio...
tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago
There is/was a sushi place in Capitola that serves The Satan Roll: fresh habenero puree.
- cfraenkel 4y ago
  That could be really good. There's a Mexican salsa that's just habanero and red onion, either finely diced or pureed. Surprisingly tasty and not nearly as fire-y as you'd expect. (I think traditional? Learned it from some Mexican friends so don't really know how common it is)
tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago
Carolina Reaper should be Schedule I then? /sarcasm
ispo 4y ago
Now that you mention it, once in Santa Fe (NM) I had a great dinner in a Tex-Mex... I felt the conversation went wild due to some substance --- I suspected thc --- but this really rings only a partial bell... why I never felt it so strong in Asia, where I consumed more capsaicin?
phendrenad2 4y ago
This article is fun, but you really have to stretch the definition of "psychoactive" to make it apply to <my forehead is sweating>.
beeforpork 4y ago
Ergo: we quickly need laws to forbid chilis! What else could be the conclusion? I'm waiting for it and will say 'told you so!'.
bobse 4y ago
Patrz synu jaki kurwa debil.
abruzzi 4y ago
I live down the road from the NMSU Chile Pepper Institute, so I’ve eaten many hot things. While I can’t grow anything, I have friends and family that have purchased seeds from their store and tried growing many varieties of Chile peppers. I have found the how it is grown has as much impact on hotness as the plant itself (in my experience). A friend grew some Ghost peppers (Bhut Jolokia), supposedly one of the hottest peppers, but it really wasn’t too hot. I wonder if over watering, like with wine grapes, dilutes the “flavor”?
- chilliboy 4y ago
  Yep, that's exactly it! Overwatering really seems to reduce the amount of heat each pepper contains. It's known in Chilli growing circles to only water your plants right on the "edge" of when they next need it, basically letting them 90% dry out before you re-water, this is to retain maximum heat in the pods, and to stop the plants from becoming oxygen starved. I love chilli, and have ever since I was a kid. I don't particularly enjoy novelty heat levels though, it's got to complement the food your eating in a balanced way. I find the Ghost/Bhut Jolokia to basically be on the good side of that threshold, anything over a Ghost I find is simply too overpowering. *Edit: My mouth is now watering!!*
dj_mc_merlin 4y ago
You can make the argument for basically anything to be psychoactive then: * good food * alternating hyperventilation/slow breathing * sex * social interaction * nervous breakdowns We set up boundaries around what is "psychoactive" (like how some people do not consider alcohol to be a drug, or somehow different from other drugs), but fundamentally it's not like the brain isn't constantly drugging itself anyway. If your brain is not changing at all, how do you even experience something?
- 323 4y ago
  * getting out in the cold in a T-shirt * putting your tongue on a battery Yeah, it's a bizarre take
- dTal 4y ago
  I have a similar difficulty with the definition of "drug" itself, which is "a substance that has a physiological effect when introduced to the body". Literally anything that participates in physics is a "drug".
  - xhrpost 4y ago
    The other definition I've seen is "a substance that changes how the body functions" which I think is a bit easier to categorize.
  - rzzzt 4y ago
    I'm reminded of this video by your definition: https://youtu.be/IeLGP2dsjME https://youtu.be/IeLGP2dsjME
  - hutzlibu 4y ago
    The literal meaning of "drug" is just dried plant matter.
etiam 4y ago
Does still-active capsaicin taken orally enter the body and affect vanilloid receptors systemically to a significant extent though? Seems like if it's just about the ability to trigger a signal at the peripheral side of some sensory nerves, that's quite a bit of stretch to "psychoactive substance", to the point that the same argument applies to e.g. photons.
ThePhysicist 4y ago
Just no, capsaicin doesn't make it into the brain to do chemical changes there, which I think is what one typically means by psychoactive. By the authors' definition sugar and salt would also be psychoactive substances, and hitting your foot with a hammer would qualify as a psychoactive experience.
- mirekrusin 4y ago
  Maybe you need to snort it.
alfiedotwtf 4y ago
Having Crazy Wings in Melbourne for the first time, and I was seriously tripping. It felt like an Out of Body Experience and time felt like it slowed down
ramesh31 4y ago
I've absolutely had a borderline psychedelic experience from hot sauce. I keep a bottle of Flatline (https://pepperpalace.com/products/the-end-flatline-hot-sauce https://pepperpalace.com/products/the-end-flatline-hot-sauce) around for anyone who talks a big game about hot sauce. It's not even hot in the normal sense. It doesn't burn your mouth. But swallow an eyedropper of it, and you are in for an hour long ordeal. Milk and water does nothing. Your entire body will tingle and sweat, and you will feel confused and disoriented like a high dosage of antihistamines. It completely changed my conception of what capsaicin can do to you.
- Ancapistani 4y ago
  LOL - Flatline's second listed ingredient is oleoresin capsicum. To put that into context, Fox Labs One Point Four - a pepper spray popular with police - is 4% oleoresin capsicum. That's not a hot sauce; that's pepper spray concentrate.
mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
Lots of spices have sub-threshold psychoactive effects that are not apparent from the amounts used in food. For instance I've found that making a strong tea from rosemary brings a calm, meditative, and sometimes quite giggly mood. Thyme contains large doses of myrcene, which has some gabaergic(iirc) effects.
- triyambakam 4y ago
  Nutmeg is psychoactive as well. I accidentally found this out using too much in masala chai when I had a very fresh source of nutmeg.
  - mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
    Yes. I didn't want to mention nutmeg because I really, really would not recommend anyone try it. It's dangerous and it's a bad high, I've tried. My dosage was subhallucinogenic but felt like being stoned, except I also had intense muscle cramps that made the whole thing a terrible time. And as a hallucinogen it's a deliriant which means you could literally run into traffic thinking you're taking a stroll through a beautiful forest(this is an actual deliriant trip report that exists btw, though the drug was datura).
    - triyambakam 4y ago
      Thanks for the further context. I have heard about its bad effects as well, but amazingly (or maybe rather unfortunately?) I never experienced such negative side effects. I guess it sounds like I was more in the subhallucinogenic dosage like yours, where I felt stoned, but did not have any cramps. Mostly just felt dehydrated later.
samelawrence 4y ago
Do our eyeballs have vanilloid receptors? Why does it irritate our eyes if the full effect comes from taste bud neurotransmitters? I think capsaicin must be doing some other work as an irritant beyond the specific receptor.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
  TRPV1 is the receptor that mediates irritation. It's not actually a taste receptor. It's expressed all over the place, probably the eyes too. The fact it's also in the mouth and associated with spicy food leads to the common misconception that it's a taste receptor.
dtgriscom 4y ago
Capsaicin feels like it's burning your mouth/skin/etc, but is it just stimulating nerves? Can capsaicin actually cause harm?
keepquestioning 4y ago
I love chilli but don't love a burning asshole, is there a way to work around it?
nkrisc 4y ago
I’m not convinced about “psychoactive” but the Carolina Reaper sauce I have dies give me this fuzzy, tingling sensation all over my face that feels really good. Though maybe the reason I’m conditioned to like it so much is the only other time I get that same sensation is from sex. Hot sauce, as good as sex.
wonderwonder 4y ago
Yellow rice mixed with scotch bonnet hot sauce and grilled chicken breast marinated in spicy bbq sauce is my favorite food on earth. I can eat it for lunch and dinner.
otabdeveloper4 4y ago
So what? So is sugar.
sawyna 4y ago
Does this mean I'm eating large quantities of psychoactive substance since childhood? For context, I'm from southern part of India where some of spiciest food in all of India is part of day to day food. I eat pickles fairly regularly and can't go more than a week without eating "that" spice. The sayings from previous generations are more spice = more anger. I wonder if that's related.

225 points by stared 4y ago

Eating super spicy food definitely leaves me feeling kind of drunk. Have met others who have this and others who doesnt believe me/think Im exaggerating.

PaulHoule 4y ago

I've seen hints in literature written in the 19th century that some people ate red pepper to get high. To enjoy Capsaicin as a stimulant mix copious amounts of the powdered red pepper with honey. Taking it for a few days screws up my stomach though.

ReptileMan 4y ago
How exactly does it screws you up?
- klyrs 4y ago
  It plays hell on all of the mucous membranes it comes into contact with, stomach and intestines included. I'm not sure if it can give you an ulcer, but in my experience, if you've already got one, it can be debilitatingly painful.
  - fknorangesite 4y ago
    > I'm not sure if it can give you an ulcer No, it cannot. > The most common causes of peptic ulcers are infection with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and naproxen sodium (Aleve). Stress and spicy foods do not cause peptic ulcers. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/peptic-ulcer/symptoms-causes/syc-20354223 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/peptic-ulcer/...
    - klyrs 4y ago
      Thanks! Doctors aren't always clear on the difference between treatment of symptoms and addressing the cause.
      - taeric 4y ago
        It is also a surprisingly recent learning on the cause. Such that many older doctors and family members probably still remember the old thinking.
- PaulHoule 4y ago
  (1) Heartburn, (2) Ass pain when it comes out the other side.
  - mmmpop 4y ago
    I used to adore spicy food and about 4/5 Thai spicy was my jam. But sometime in my late-20s my body decided it didn't like it anymore and now if I so much as smell a pathetic jalapeño I have to run to the bathroom. I can eat a couple pickled peppers and get away with it but even "mild+" at whatever Asian establishment is too much. It's really quite tragic.

_xnmw 4y ago

So spicy South Asian food is a drug addiction?

rjbwork 4y ago
Absolutely. I continue to imbibe in increasing quantities despite the negative digestive effects.
- Moissanite 4y ago
  Which cracks first, your mind or the toilet bowl?
  - 35amxn35 4y ago
    My ass, unironically. Thanks God for bidets
  - ReptileMan 4y ago
    A good curry burns twice ...
  - rjbwork 4y ago
    Honestly, I have eaten some insanely hot peppers and sauce. The whole "coming out" thing is not really a problem for me. What is a problem, is that I have some acid reflux issues, and if I'm not careful about when I eat spicy food and when I go to bed, and neglect to take either an antacid or drink some milk/eat some yogurt after a session of very spicy food, I can end up in severe pain.
brodouevencode 4y ago
I am addicted to Indian food, but live in an area where it's an hour+ drive to get some.

hbrav 4y ago

I suppose the UK government could choose to use this line of argument combined with the 2016 Psychoactive Substances act to ban spicy curries: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/psychoactive-substances-act-2016-guidance-for-researchers/psychoactive-substances-act-2016-guidance-for-researchers https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/psychoactive-subs...

snoot 4y ago
It would be hard to ban a national dish.
- BaronVonSteuben 4y ago
  Won't somebody please think of the children??
  - ispo 4y ago
    What is wrong with my kid eating curry?
    - c7DJTLrn 4y ago
      It's a joke about how the UK government pushes incredibly authoritarian laws using the safety of children as a trojan horse.
      - ispo 4y ago
        Oh such a good joke!!!! Thanks for showing me the twist. I remember the funny safety conversations at tennis matches after a few drops of rain.
      - throwawaylinux 4y ago
        Turns out just about everybody, all around the world, loves authoritarian laws when they agree with the alleged goal, or when the psychological propaganda worked on them. If it's not the children, it's grandma, or someone else. Turns out there are a small number of actual anti-authoritarians who have always been consistent. And then there are countless hangers-on who proclaim to be an anti-authoritarian resistance when it suits them. It's funny, the fact people co-opt it shows that they see it as a noble and worthy ideology, yet it's still one they're happy to discard the minute some talking head put on TV by a corporation tells them to be outraged.

xnx 4y ago

Homer knows this: https://youtu.be/f4VzXNRUN1I?t=100 https://youtu.be/f4VzXNRUN1I?t=100

rob74 4y ago

> Then, while there is still some residual burning sensation remaining, the flush of endorphins gives this blissful, albeit a bit drunk, state (“Live is beautiful, I love you all, awesome…”). Or, as they say in German, "es ist schön, wenn der Schmerz nachlässt" (it's great when the pain goes away). Then again, you also wouldn't intentionally hit your finger with a hammer to experience this feeling - so my approach to spicy food is "know your limit": I enjoy it in moderate amounts, but keep away from the kind of spicyness where after a few bites you feel like your mouth is on fire and you can't taste the food anymore...

allemagne 4y ago
>Then again, you also wouldn't intentionally hit your finger with a hammer to experience this feeling This actually sounds related to some of the reasoning behind "cutting" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-harm#Pathophysiology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-harm#Pathophysiology
stared 4y ago
I think there are two different states when the pain goes away - relief and euphory. These can be mistaken occasionally - as in the Rabbi and the goat joke/parable. But in most cases, it is clear if a state would be desirable if there were no discomfort before. (As a side note, it is why I am skeptical about people praising the Kambo ceremony - taking a frog poison.) Ad hammer - I mention that in another blog post (curious if you refer to this or if it is a nice coincidence). In any case, there is a difference if something is only a temporary discomfort or causes long-term harm. Instead of using a hammer, one can get spanked or (safely) flogged.
bergenty 4y ago
The difference is you’re not causing any damage to your body when you eat spicy food unlike hitting your finger with a hammer.
- jordigh 4y ago
  Your body can react to the pain excitation in some slightly harmful ways, such as diarrhea, overproduction of mucus, altered digestion, etc. True, the capsaicin itself doesn't harm your body, but the pain can in itself cause some slight damage (and like any drug, an overdose of capsaicin can be very dangerous).

SketchySeaBeast 4y ago

A local fried chicken restaurant calls their spiciest chicken WNFA (we're not fucking around), and it's exactly as it says on the tin. When I have enough of it and I've gotten past the initial "why am I doing this? this is stupid, I should stop," I genuinely experience a form of euphoria. The next day is sheer hell though, so I don't do it often. And that's how boring my life is, occasionally eating fried chicken to get mildly high.

JasonFruit 4y ago
I'm assuming you mean fried chicken: you should only eat food chicken, not friend chicken.
- FredPret 4y ago
  Chicken as cattle not pet?
  - Crespyl 4y ago
    Truly a fowl play. I wonder if we ever start to see application-specific biocomputing systems integrated into server farms, we might really start calling our servers "livestock".
- CaptainNegative 4y ago
  friends not food
  - nobody9999 4y ago
    >friends not food Mildly OT, but reminds me of this iconic scene[0] from Roger & Me[1]. In some ways, (the movie[1], not the clip[0]) doesn't hold up too well. In others, it's still spot on IMHO. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ff68dXFsc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ff68dXFsc [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_%26_Me https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_%26_Me
    - 4y ago

twobitshifter 4y ago

There are quite a few psychoactive foods, nutmeg, chocolate, bad rye bread, and a “dream fish” https://www.mashed.com/26985/foods-actually-mess-head/ https://www.mashed.com/26985/foods-actually-mess-head/

klondike_klive 4y ago
Recommend against nutmeg. The comedown wasn't worth it.
- the_only_law 4y ago
  Isn’t it a deliriant? I won’t touch those.
  - jb_s 4y ago
    I do know the active ingredient is cytotoxic / potentially neurotoxic. Definitely avoid.
  - klondike_klive 4y ago
    I was young and in a pretty ropey state of mind, living in a drab town in the Midlands in the sleety grey winter. A friend had tried it before which is where I got the idea. It tasted nasty and bitter, unsurprisingly for something you use by the pinch. Within an hour or two I became unpleasantly high, which made me regret what I'd done and worry myself into a classic bad trip state. It lasted for a long time, don't remember much of the evening, went to bed, couldn't sleep, missed an awards ceremony. Next three days I was like a zombie - heart racing even sitting still, cotton-mouth, trouble stringing words together. Along with galloping shame and self-loathing. To this day my friends give me shit me about it, whenever nutmeg is mentioned. I count myself lucky that it wasn't worse and that I still have friends from that time.

k__ 4y ago

Some people on Hot Ones really look like they're trippin

suzzer99 4y ago

I recently learned that there was basically no spicy-hot food in the Old World before Columbus. Apparently Indian black pepper, or something called long pepper which has a little more kick, were the hottest spices around. Can anyone confirm or deny this? The internet seems to agree. It still seems crazy to me.

wazoox 4y ago
Mustard, horseradish are pretty strong, however it's a entirely distinct sensation from chili.
- zikduruqe 4y ago
  "It's not even the same sport" - Jules from Pulp Fiction. /s Allyl isothiocyanateallyl isothiocyanateAllyl isothiocyanate (AITC) is the organosulfur compound with the formula CH2CHCH2NCS that gives horseradish its unique flavor.
FooHentai 4y ago
Mustard was around from the early Romans/Gauls I think, if that counts.
aidenn0 4y ago
I can confirm that chili (and bell) peppers are new-world plants. They got the name "pepper" as an analogy to the main source of spiciness, black-pepper, which is from an old-world plant. In fact I believe the only nightshade used as food in the old-word was the Eggplant, with potatoes and tomatoes also being new-world. So prior to 1492, there was no tomato in Italian food and no chili in Thai food.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  Potatoes, maize/corn, tomatoes, chile peppers, chocolate. Old-world food was a hell of a lot more boring before the Columbian exchange. It transformed food so much that most of what we think of as "traditional" cuisines in various old-world countries or regions are largely products of the 16th century or later. The exchange also cut the rate and severity of previously-regular famines dramatically, enabling a huge population boom and economic expansion (see: Mann's 1493). Mainly due to maize and potatoes, maize being incredibly efficient on a calories-per-acre basis, and potatoes being stupid-easy to grow almost anywhere, having decent caloric content and not-bad nutrient profile (gotta eat the skin, though) and being easy to store for the medium-term to cover gaps when other crops fail (you just... leave them in the ground)

Tade0 4y ago

I grew up in a family that ate spicy food on a regular basis. So much so that we had one case where the waiter, seeing children at the table, advised us against taking what we wanted, namely a pizza named "diablo". I watched him as he waited to intervene a few steps from us, platter in hand. Eventually he gave up. In any case my experience, after 30 years of eating spicy food, is that I apparently don't feel the usual effects people who like spicy food do. What happens instead is that the spice forces me to eat slower and thus get more flavour out of the dish. After all, "spicy" is technically not a flavour, so it mixes well with just about anything. I did have a period of gradually increasing the dose, though, at the end of which I discovered that capsaicin is also excreted through urine. It is not a pleasant experience.

orev 4y ago
Capsaicin receptors also get “used up” over periods of long exposure, so you become less sensitive to the sensation. It sounds like you’ve been exposed to it your whole life, so have simply adjusted to it. If you abstained for an extended period of time (6 months?) that Diablo pizza would probably blow your head off.
- saiya-jin 4y ago
  I've noticed ie in India that long time exposure severely numbs all your taste buds, so folks end up over-salting, over-sweetening etc. which definitely goes in bad direction re long term health. Or one can accept that non-spicy foods taste very bland, which is rather sad world TBH. Many ie french are like this, they politely refuse going extreme re chilli, but once you get to fine tastes of that cuisine that would be completely gone you understand them. And join them, even as Indian/curry food lover
  - ilyt 4y ago
    Kinda why I don't care for spicy food, it feels to me like bandaid for not making food actually tasty in the first place without the spiciness...

hardwaregeek 4y ago

The combination of spicy and numbing that the Chinese call málà is particularly mind bending. The tingly numbing enhances the spice which enhances the tingly numbing. A proper Sichuan hot pot is practically a drug (and indeed in some cases people have been known to use poppy in the broth, at least according to Fuchsia Dunlop).

rippercushions 4y ago
That's thanks to capsaicin's buddy sanshool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool

thomasskis 4y ago

I’m not sure it’s directly psychoactive as he stated in the post, it does agonise the TRPV1 receptor; but that doesn’t directly create a sense euphoria. When agonised it triggers the production of endogenous anandamides and those anandamides bind to the CB1 receptor which is responsible for euphoric feelings. Vanillin does the same thing. So does dancing and some forms of yoga. But foods like cacao (or significantly dark chocolate) directly contain anandamides which cause euphoria. Cacao also has re-uptake inhibitors that make the euphoric feeling last a lot longer. This is why ancient civilisations like the Olmecs, Aztecs, and Mayans would mix drinks of cacao, vanilla, and capsaicin. And modern Mexican chocolate often mixes in pepper. Without Cacao the anandamide induced euphoria is very short lived.

mmmpop 4y ago

I remember vividly when Flamin' Hot Cheetos came out (where I lived) and the ruckus they caused at my middle school. We inexplicably had vending machines full of junk food in the main lobby and kids would line up to empty the machines within minutes of lunch hour starting since, at the least, they only turned them on at lunch. They were eventually banned because some administrator discovered that kids were getting "high" from them, and replaced with regular Cheetos. Good job.

justinlloyd 4y ago

Brassica plants, taste and smell, make me physically nauseous. I theorize that this is a genetic disposition. Asparagus makes your urine smell of fresh mown grass, except that mine doesn't, and I cannot detect that odour in another person's urine after they have ate asparagus. We... uh... ran some experiments to determine this. I theorized for a few years that this was a genetic thing, and sure enough, research published recently (in the past three years) bears this out. My wife thinks that cilantro tastes of soap. And I theorized this is a genetic disposition. Research in the past few years bears this out. But cilantro to me, is a mild hallucinogenic and also a skin irritant. Which I theorized was a genetic response. And sure enough, in the past few years, research indicates that cilantro on certain people can act as an hallucinogenic. I have gained an appreciation for Mexican food more so of late.

cwkoss 4y ago
Could you describe the nature of cilantro hallucinations? Visual? Closed eye or open eye? Auditory? I've never heard of someone having this kind of reaction to cilantro and find it fascinating.
- justinlloyd 4y ago
  Cilantro contains thujone which is a neurotoxin, the same as found in absinthe. So I'm kinda like a dolphin using a puffer fish to get high. There are various studies in this compound, and others, and it is a controlled compound regulated by the EU. I have independent verification by friends who are scientists and medical doctors at one gathering who have conducted observations that my pupils dilate, my eyes become bloodshot and, in the words of one observer, "I become more whoo-whoo. Whooo! Whoooooooo!" whatever that means. As my normal demeanour flips between "I don't want to be around people, you're all so tiring, I just want to be quiet" and a hyperactive Robin Williams amped up on caffeine and sugar, I am guessing I become even more "Whoooo! Whooooooooooooo! Let's par-tehhh!" I am probably over-compensating for something. The video recordings are cringeworthy. We've done independent blind tests of "is this psychosomatic" or do I truly have a reaction. Multiple blind tests of a single subject (me) by multiple qualified observers over the course of several days do indeed bear out that I have an unintended reaction to cilantro, the oils from cilantro and the active ingredients in cilantro. Direct contact of the cilantro on my skin makes my skin itch and become red and bumpy. When I imbibe even small amounts of cilantro, no more than you would get in a standard serving with a meal, to me, it feels like I am drunk and whoozy for about 20 or so minutes before the effects pass. Again, to reiterate, I suspect my extreme reaction to cilantro is genetic and gives me a sensitivity and reaction that most of the population doesn't have, much like some of the population also detects cilantro tasting of soap. Though I suspect these are very different genetic markers.

bastardoperator 4y ago

I ate a Carolina Reaper pepper. Once. It's the not spice that got me, it wasn't that bad. It's the aftermath of feeling like complete shit hours later that ruined it for me. My stomach hurt a lot, and while this is probably TMI, even my urine was spicy. Now I just stick to the normal flavorful spicy stuff, no more stupid spicy.

TheMerovingian 4y ago
Fiery urine is normal for folks that eat a lot of spicy foods.
- lazide 4y ago
  As in, it hurts to pee? Or it hurts to be peed on?
  - rad_gruchalski 4y ago
    It hurts to pee. And it feels like you are leaking after peeing. It’s quite a funny feeling.
    - bastardoperator 4y ago
      For me it felt like I put hot sauce on my junk, it was not pleasant.
      - rad_gruchalski 4y ago
        I cannot relate, not a familiar feeling.

aliqot 4y ago

I can't wait till the western world capitalizes on numbing spice like pink pepper the way the east does. Folks love to focus on capsaicin, but it's just one piece of the puzzle.

dendrite9 4y ago
I plan on trying to grow some of these flowers next year to see how numbing they are to eat. It looks like they are not had to grow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acmella_oleracea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acmella_oleracea

lathyrus_long 4y ago

I'm not sure that's how I perceive capsaicin myself; but the guy who bred the Carolina Reaper is a recovering addict (in the usual sense, street drugs and alcohol), and he certainly describes his creations in similar terms: https://honeysucklemag.com/smokin-ed-currie-peppers-addiction/ https://honeysucklemag.com/smokin-ed-currie-peppers-addictio...

tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago

There is/was a sushi place in Capitola that serves The Satan Roll: fresh habenero puree.

cfraenkel 4y ago
That could be really good. There's a Mexican salsa that's just habanero and red onion, either finely diced or pureed. Surprisingly tasty and not nearly as fire-y as you'd expect. (I think traditional? Learned it from some Mexican friends so don't really know how common it is)

tinglymintyfrsh 4y ago

Carolina Reaper should be Schedule I then? /sarcasm

ispo 4y ago

Now that you mention it, once in Santa Fe (NM) I had a great dinner in a Tex-Mex... I felt the conversation went wild due to some substance --- I suspected thc --- but this really rings only a partial bell... why I never felt it so strong in Asia, where I consumed more capsaicin?

phendrenad2 4y ago

This article is fun, but you really have to stretch the definition of "psychoactive" to make it apply to <my forehead is sweating>.

beeforpork 4y ago

Ergo: we quickly need laws to forbid chilis! What else could be the conclusion? I'm waiting for it and will say 'told you so!'.

bobse 4y ago

Patrz synu jaki kurwa debil.

abruzzi 4y ago

I live down the road from the NMSU Chile Pepper Institute, so I’ve eaten many hot things. While I can’t grow anything, I have friends and family that have purchased seeds from their store and tried growing many varieties of Chile peppers. I have found the how it is grown has as much impact on hotness as the plant itself (in my experience). A friend grew some Ghost peppers (Bhut Jolokia), supposedly one of the hottest peppers, but it really wasn’t too hot. I wonder if over watering, like with wine grapes, dilutes the “flavor”?

chilliboy 4y ago
Yep, that's exactly it! Overwatering really seems to reduce the amount of heat each pepper contains. It's known in Chilli growing circles to only water your plants right on the "edge" of when they next need it, basically letting them 90% dry out before you re-water, this is to retain maximum heat in the pods, and to stop the plants from becoming oxygen starved. I love chilli, and have ever since I was a kid. I don't particularly enjoy novelty heat levels though, it's got to complement the food your eating in a balanced way. I find the Ghost/Bhut Jolokia to basically be on the good side of that threshold, anything over a Ghost I find is simply too overpowering. *Edit: My mouth is now watering!!*

dj_mc_merlin 4y ago

You can make the argument for basically anything to be psychoactive then: * good food * alternating hyperventilation/slow breathing * sex * social interaction * nervous breakdowns We set up boundaries around what is "psychoactive" (like how some people do not consider alcohol to be a drug, or somehow different from other drugs), but fundamentally it's not like the brain isn't constantly drugging itself anyway. If your brain is not changing at all, how do you even experience something?

323 4y ago
* getting out in the cold in a T-shirt * putting your tongue on a battery Yeah, it's a bizarre take
dTal 4y ago
I have a similar difficulty with the definition of "drug" itself, which is "a substance that has a physiological effect when introduced to the body". Literally anything that participates in physics is a "drug".
- xhrpost 4y ago
  The other definition I've seen is "a substance that changes how the body functions" which I think is a bit easier to categorize.
- rzzzt 4y ago
  I'm reminded of this video by your definition: https://youtu.be/IeLGP2dsjME https://youtu.be/IeLGP2dsjME
- hutzlibu 4y ago
  The literal meaning of "drug" is just dried plant matter.

etiam 4y ago

Does still-active capsaicin taken orally enter the body and affect vanilloid receptors systemically to a significant extent though? Seems like if it's just about the ability to trigger a signal at the peripheral side of some sensory nerves, that's quite a bit of stretch to "psychoactive substance", to the point that the same argument applies to e.g. photons.

ThePhysicist 4y ago

Just no, capsaicin doesn't make it into the brain to do chemical changes there, which I think is what one typically means by psychoactive. By the authors' definition sugar and salt would also be psychoactive substances, and hitting your foot with a hammer would qualify as a psychoactive experience.

mirekrusin 4y ago
Maybe you need to snort it.

alfiedotwtf 4y ago

Having Crazy Wings in Melbourne for the first time, and I was seriously tripping. It felt like an Out of Body Experience and time felt like it slowed down

ramesh31 4y ago

I've absolutely had a borderline psychedelic experience from hot sauce. I keep a bottle of Flatline (https://pepperpalace.com/products/the-end-flatline-hot-sauce https://pepperpalace.com/products/the-end-flatline-hot-sauce) around for anyone who talks a big game about hot sauce. It's not even hot in the normal sense. It doesn't burn your mouth. But swallow an eyedropper of it, and you are in for an hour long ordeal. Milk and water does nothing. Your entire body will tingle and sweat, and you will feel confused and disoriented like a high dosage of antihistamines. It completely changed my conception of what capsaicin can do to you.

Ancapistani 4y ago
LOL - Flatline's second listed ingredient is oleoresin capsicum. To put that into context, Fox Labs One Point Four - a pepper spray popular with police - is 4% oleoresin capsicum. That's not a hot sauce; that's pepper spray concentrate.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago

Lots of spices have sub-threshold psychoactive effects that are not apparent from the amounts used in food. For instance I've found that making a strong tea from rosemary brings a calm, meditative, and sometimes quite giggly mood. Thyme contains large doses of myrcene, which has some gabaergic(iirc) effects.

triyambakam 4y ago
Nutmeg is psychoactive as well. I accidentally found this out using too much in masala chai when I had a very fresh source of nutmeg.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
  Yes. I didn't want to mention nutmeg because I really, really would not recommend anyone try it. It's dangerous and it's a bad high, I've tried. My dosage was subhallucinogenic but felt like being stoned, except I also had intense muscle cramps that made the whole thing a terrible time. And as a hallucinogen it's a deliriant which means you could literally run into traffic thinking you're taking a stroll through a beautiful forest(this is an actual deliriant trip report that exists btw, though the drug was datura).
  - triyambakam 4y ago
    Thanks for the further context. I have heard about its bad effects as well, but amazingly (or maybe rather unfortunately?) I never experienced such negative side effects. I guess it sounds like I was more in the subhallucinogenic dosage like yours, where I felt stoned, but did not have any cramps. Mostly just felt dehydrated later.

samelawrence 4y ago

Do our eyeballs have vanilloid receptors? Why does it irritate our eyes if the full effect comes from taste bud neurotransmitters? I think capsaicin must be doing some other work as an irritant beyond the specific receptor.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
TRPV1 is the receptor that mediates irritation. It's not actually a taste receptor. It's expressed all over the place, probably the eyes too. The fact it's also in the mouth and associated with spicy food leads to the common misconception that it's a taste receptor.

dtgriscom 4y ago

Capsaicin feels like it's burning your mouth/skin/etc, but is it just stimulating nerves? Can capsaicin actually cause harm?

keepquestioning 4y ago

I love chilli but don't love a burning asshole, is there a way to work around it?

nkrisc 4y ago

I’m not convinced about “psychoactive” but the Carolina Reaper sauce I have dies give me this fuzzy, tingling sensation all over my face that feels really good. Though maybe the reason I’m conditioned to like it so much is the only other time I get that same sensation is from sex. Hot sauce, as good as sex.

wonderwonder 4y ago

Yellow rice mixed with scotch bonnet hot sauce and grilled chicken breast marinated in spicy bbq sauce is my favorite food on earth. I can eat it for lunch and dinner.

otabdeveloper4 4y ago

So what? So is sugar.

sawyna 4y ago

Does this mean I'm eating large quantities of psychoactive substance since childhood? For context, I'm from southern part of India where some of spiciest food in all of India is part of day to day food. I eat pickles fairly regularly and can't go more than a week without eating "that" spice. The sayings from previous generations are more spice = more anger. I wonder if that's related.