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Training Your Tongue to Love Spicy Food Benefits More Than Your Taste Buds - Mother Jones
The tongue-searing, eye-watering heat caused by eating chili peppers comes from a substance called capsaicin. Stuart Walton became very familiar with the stuff while researching his book The Devil’s Dinner: A Gastronomic and Cultural History of Chili Peppers. Pepper breeders are always working on new versions of chilies in an attempt to create the spiciest fruit in the world, and Walton felt he had to keep up by sampling them. Each new variety “was a further assault on the senses,” he says. “If I eat something that’s very hot, then I start hiccuping, my digestive system gets subverted. And very, very occasionally, it can make me feel quite nauseous.”
People have long wondered why this one plant developed such picante power. As one theory goes, chili peppers—which are native to the Americas—evolved to contain capsaicin to ward off hungry mammals, which had teeth that would grind up their seeds. Birds, on the other hand, are immune to the spicy substance, and leave the seeds intact and help disperse them.
But another evolutionary theory argues that neither birds nor rodents are responsible for chilies’ spice: Instead, it may have been insects. Bugs like cicadas and aphids are sensitive to capsaicin the same way we are. In humid, tropical climates, these insects feed on wild chilies. When they puncture the fruit, they introduce moisture and the risk of fungal rot.
The tongue-searing, eye-watering heat caused by eating chili peppers comes from a substance called capsaicin. Stuart Walton became very familiar with the stuff while researching his book The Devil’s Dinner: A Gastronomic and Cultural History of Chili Peppers. Pepper breeders are always working on new versions of chilies in an attempt to create the spiciest fruit in the world, and Walton felt he had to keep up by sampling them. Each new variety “was a further assault on the senses,” he says. “If I eat something that’s very hot, then I start hiccuping, my digestive system gets subverted. And very, very occasionally, it can make me feel quite nauseous.”
People have long wondered why this one plant developed such picante power. As one theory goes, chili peppers—which are native to the Americas—evolved to contain capsaicin to ward off hungry mammals, which had teeth that would grind up their seeds. Birds, on the other hand, are immune to the spicy substance, and leave the seeds intact and help disperse them.
But another evolutionary theory argues that neither birds nor rodents are responsible for chilies’ spice: Instead, it may have been insects. Bugs like cicadas and aphids are sensitive to capsaicin the same way we are. In humid, tropical climates, these insects feed on wild chilies. When they puncture the fruit, they introduce moisture and the risk of fungal rot.