May 2, 2018 • 32 mins
Does a fondness for spicy food mean you've got an aggressive personality? Did putting spices on our foods help cavemen avoid illnesses? And if you shouldn't drink water after a hot bite, what should you guzzle to put out your blazing mouth fire? Will and Mango investigate all the ups (and a few downs) of an incredibly spicy diet.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess we bengo with that. Well, you're probably not gonna
be surprised to hear this, but I think I'm ready
for another spice. Really yeah, I've been training. I'm serious
about this now, listeners. So you know, Mango and I
both love spicy foods. It almost took professional help for
me to break my unhealthy addiction to jalapeno kettle chips
was a few years ago. Of course, I just traded
(00:20):
it out for another habit, and so now I eat
at least a couple of atomic fireballs every day. That's
probably an understatement. Maybe there's four or five. But when
it comes to eating spicy food, I always think I'm
a spice champ until I eat with Mango. So we'll
go to an Indian or a Sechuan place, will ard
up a few dishes with some extra spice. Our food
comes up, and that's when the sweating starts. It's so
(00:43):
irritating because I love the spiciness, I honestly do. But
you will be over there downing all this crazy spicy stuff,
even requesting these extra spice bombs like you do with
the Ramen place, and it doesn't seem to affect you
at all. Meanwhile, ten minutes in, I look like I've
just finished a marathon. It's ridiculous. Well, I mean, I'm
told you it doesn't matter, right, it's just as long
as you enjoy the food. Yeah, but the wait staff
(01:05):
always seems concerned, and you just look at them. It's
like you guys have the secret unspoken language. Will just
not and with that simple nod, it's as if you're saying, like,
it's okay, he's fine, he's just from Alabama, not India.
And then they look at you and they not as
if to say, we felt pretty safe and assuming he's
not from India, But are you sure he's okay? I mean,
(01:25):
just look at him over there. It's amazing this language
that you guys have. You look back as if to say,
trust me, he's fine. This happens every time. But if
you have a couple of bath towels, you know, one
for his forehead and one to soak up the pool
on the floor, that that that would be great. Well,
I'm pretty sure that's all in your head. We don't
have any sort of secret language. But I do have
these cards printed up. That's a what you're about to
(01:46):
see is them pretty but don't panic. That's thoughtful of you.
But either way, we both love spicy food and the
science of spicy food is fascinating to both of us.
So we had so many questions going into this episode.
How did humans evolved to enjoy spicy food, what does
it predict about our personalities if we enjoy that spicy kick?
And is there any evidence that eating spicy foods could
(02:09):
help us live longer? So let's get started. Hey there,
(02:37):
podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh
how Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof
glass demonstrating just how well he can take the heat,
that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, I really
do wish our listeners could see this, because Tristan's assembled
this spicy food feast for the ages here. I mean,
look at this stuff that he's eating. He's got an
(02:58):
order of drunken noodles, a Sishwan hot pot, a bowl
of five alarm chili, a pile of ghost pepper chicken wings.
I mean, it's ridiculous, and he's just going to town
on all of this. Guy is a machine. I honestly
feel he's just like showing off at this point. I
feel like you should have, like that cartoon, steam coming
out of his ears, but he hasn't even broken a sweat.
(03:19):
It is a little bit eerie. Well all right. You know,
while most people enjoy adding at least a little spice
to their meals, some can definitely handle the heat better
than others. So we'll take a look at why that
is a little bit later in the show. But to
kick things off, I thought we should talk about what
makes spicy foods taste hot in the first place, or really,
I should say what makes us think that spicy foods
(03:39):
taste hot, Because you might remember from one of our
earlier episodes, the one we did on the science of flavor,
spicy isn't really a taste at all. In reality, the
burning sensations we feel from spicy foods, those are the
result of our sense of touch, rather than from taste
or smell. Yeah, I remember involvest like some sort of
chemical trickery, right, Like it has something to do with
how kept satan interacts with our touch receptors. Yeah, that's right.
(04:02):
So kept satan, of course, is the chemical and the
seeds and the tissue of the chili peppers that gives
them their heat. And you know, pepper plants actually evolve
kept satan as a protective measure, and this was to
help them, you know, protect them against animals and insects
so they can have a better shot at dispersing their seeds. So,
for instance, when humans and other mammals eat chili peppers,
we tend to make it so the seeds can't be
(04:23):
germinated later when we inevitably part ways with them and
we grind the seeds too much with our molars, or
else we destroy them completely in our harsh digestive tracks.
So as a deterrent to this, pepper plants started producing
a chemical that activates these special touch receptors, and they
found all over the inner layer of our skin and
that includes our mouths now. This receptor is called trip
(04:45):
V one, and it's the body's early warning system for
hot temperatures. So think about if you sit on the
sun too long and your skin starts to burn a little,
or when your hand grazes the hot stove and you
know to pull it away really quickly. That's trip V
one at work. And this is where the chemical trickery
that you mentioned comes in because kept sastan actually works
by lowering the energy needed to activate those trip V
(05:07):
one defenses. So, while these receptors would typically read any
mouth temperature over a hundred and nine degrees fahrenheit as
a burn, once they've bonded with KEP sasan anything higher
than nine three degrees fahrenheit registers as dangerously hot. So
that's interesting. But I mean, the average mouth temperature for
humans is ninety eight point six, So kep sason actually
(05:27):
makes these receptors think your whole mouth is burning. Yeah,
that's exactly what happens, and that's why sometimes feels like
your entire mouth is on fire when you eat something spicy,
because you know, as far as your brain knows it,
it actually is. So then if we have these touch
receptors all over our body and not just in our mouths,
why don't we feel like our skin is burning anytime
we touch a chili pepper. Remember we're talking about the
inner layer of our skin that has these receptors, so
(05:49):
we can really only feel the burn of the peppers
on areas where our outer skin layer is thin enough
for that cap sason to get through. So the mouth
is obviously one of the places the eyes are and
other and that's why you're never supposed to touch your
eyes after you've been handling chili peppers. And there are
also a few other thin skinned places that we don't
have the name here, but you can probably use your
(06:10):
imagination for these. Yeah. I actually remember reading this old
Hungarian proverb about how good paprika burns twice, so I
think I know where you're getting at. I love how
you always try to find a way to use a
Hungarian proverb, but I should mention that it's not just
kept station that triggers this false flag burning sensation. You know.
Research also shows that trippy one receptors also respond to
(06:32):
other quote unquote hot foods, including black pepper and ginger.
And there's also trip a one that so called was
sabi receptor, and that's activated by a certain oil that's
found in foods like horseradish and mustards, onions, garlic, cinnamon,
and of course with sabi. I like how, at first
class it seems like all those plants have come up
with this genius way of making themselves unpalatable to mammals.
(06:54):
But then when you think about it. There's this one
stubborn species that doesn't seem to have gotten the memo right,
and humans, like, we love our spicy foods, and we
even have contest just to see how much heat we
can stomach. It's weird that we do these things that
cause pain, or at least make us think that we're
in pain. It is pretty strange when you when you
think about it. But there was this one researcher who
(07:15):
was a professor of psychology. His name was Paul Rosen.
This was back in the nineteen eighties, and he actually
proved that there is a connection between thrill seeking and
eating spicy foods. So here's how rose inputs it. He says, humans,
and only humans, seem to get pleasure out of innately
negative experiences when they are aware that the body signals
are not really threatening. There's a term for it. He
(07:37):
calls it benign masochism. And it's the same inclination that
makes it fun to write a rollercoaster or watch a
scary movie. I mean, all these things provoke these real
biological responses in our bodies, but since we know at
some level there's no real danger, the end result is
actually a pleasurable feeling rather than this purely painful one.
So I actually read up on where that pleasure stems
(07:59):
from and the it was pretty surprising because it turns
out while men and women both enjoy spicy foods, the
reason why they do it are completely different. So for women,
research shows that they simply like the burning sting that
spicy foods provide. And since cap sasan has been known
to trigger the release of endorphins, you know, maybe that's
not so surprising, right, it makes you feel good. But men,
(08:19):
on the other hand, tend to partake in spicy foods
because they like the attention. And bro, we like attention.
We love that spotlight. So there's no denying that. Downing
a whole plate of like hot wings, you know it's
going to get you some street cred in some circles.
And our culture actually views being able to withstand spicy
foods as a sign of strength and the lust for
that kind of like social glory that seems to drive
(08:40):
male spicy food fans more than anything else. Well, that
actually makes sense in a a lot of a study I
was reading about from a few years ago. The researchers
at the University of Grenoble, and they got together a
hundred and fourteen men, and they brought them together in
a testing lab and had them sit down to a
meal of mashed potatoes and hot sauce. I don't know why, calm,
I don't know why it need to be mashed potatoes,
(09:01):
but actually I would do this, But how much hot
sauce was to be used was completely up to the participants. Now,
in the end, the men who used the most were
also the ones with the highest levels of testosterone. Not
only that, but those who have the spiciest palettes also
shared tendencies toward social dominance, aggression, and risk taking, all
of which have been linked already to high testosterone. It's
(09:24):
kind of crazy how much of a predictor if someone's
personality can be for whether or not they like spicy foods.
Like appriendly people who are into action movies and really
adventurous hobbies are six times more likely to enjoy hot
foods than those who prefer tamor pastimes. Which is why
I know you were not part of this study, because
I know you love spicy foods. But if I think
about all the movies you've recommended over the years, the
(09:46):
ones that had the most action in them were probably
I don't know, like Rushmore and Amalie maybe having like
the least action packed movies ever. So I do love
to read those descriptions of like aggression and dominance and
all that. So there's something great about it. I worked
in this Italian restaurant where all the white staff was Mexican,
and they were doing this thing where they got these
(10:07):
cucumbers and they put all the spice on it, and
they were calling the students over and one by one
giving them theseus and then uh, and then everyone's mouth
was on fire. And then they called me over and
they were like watch, watch wasatch and they had anyone.
It's like it wasn't that spicy. It felt like a superpower. Yeah,
that's pretty pretty amazing, And I do wonder if it's
(10:28):
always been that way, Like is that how humans started
eating spicy food to begin with? You imagine like this
prehistoric daredevil that came along and decided to chew through
that burn because he liked the adrenaline boost or I
don't really know. Yeah, I mean I was reading about
this archaeological dig from a few years ago where these
researchers found evidence that Europeans had been spicing up their
(10:49):
food for way longer than we once thought. Like Apparently
they found the remains of cooking pots from more than
six thousand years ago at three different dig sites, and
this is in northern Europe, and inside the pots they
found the bits of plant residue, some of which looked
a lot like modern day garlic mustard seeds. So I mean,
but what makes you sure that they were eating the
seeds for the heat specifically, Well, mustard seeds, like most
(11:11):
spicy plants we've been talking about, have next to no
nutritional values, so they wouldn't have been providing much energy
on their own, but they definitely would have added like
a sharp bite to whatever else was on the menu.
And that's ultimately what researchers believe we're dealing with here,
the earliest known use of spices and cooking. That is
pretty interesting. And you know, I always assume prehistoric humans
had these bland diets for the most part. I don't
(11:32):
know why. I would just think about what was available.
So I just imagine like lots of cooked meat and
whatever edible plants that could scrounge up that might help
them just survive with that being the main goal. So
it is kind of fond to hear that they might
have been experimenting with different foods and adding flavor just
for flavors sake. Yeah, and I'm actually glad our ancestors
were willing to try new things, because that's likely why
(11:52):
spicy foods taste so good to us in the first place.
What do you mean. I thought we were in agreement
that spiciness is more of a mouth feel and not
a tape east. Yeah, I mean, we explain why our
bodies register certain foods is hot, but those foods still
carry their own flavors to I mean, think about what
a chili pepper tastes like. Right, it feels hot, but
it tastes kind of earthy or bitter or maybe even
(12:13):
mildly fruity. So you're saying we inherited a taste for
those flavors from like as far back as cave men. Well,
I mean maybe not cave mean exactly, but these beneficial
traits are passed down both culturally and genetically, and that
includes our preferences for specific flavors. All right, But is
liking the flavor of spicy foods a beneficial trade? I
mean you just said that most spices have basically zero
(12:34):
nutritional value though, right, that's true, but you've got to
keep in mind that spices have these antimicrobial properties that
can be very useful for preventing food spoilage. So I
think about chilies and other hot peppers, they can actually
kill up to seventy five of food born bacteria, and
then spices like garlic, onion, oregano that can actually wipe
out the full So while today we mostly use spices
(12:57):
to enhance our foods flavor men, researchers actually think the
original reason for using spices was to kill that food
born bacteria and fungi. And if that's the case, like
the people who ate those foods with antibacterial spices were
likely the healthiest ones in their communities. And not only
would these prehistoric chefs have passed on their cooking tips
to their offspring, they also would have likely passed along
(13:19):
this taste for spicy bacteria killing cuisine. I think I
get it then, So from an evolutionary perspective, it makes
sense to have taste receptors that are well tuned to
spicy flavors, because you know, ultimately that would make us
likely to seek out foods that are protected against spoilage,
and I guess in theory would keep us alive longer exactly,
And making this connection between microbes and spices was no
(13:40):
easy task. A research team at Cornell only pulled it
off by scouring a mountain of data. And this included
nearly five thousand recipes from nine three cookbooks, and it
represented the traditional meat based cuisines of I guess thirty
six countries. And in the end, the researchers were able
to conclude that quote recipes are a record of the
history of the evely snary race between us and our parasites.
(14:02):
The micros are competing with us for the same food.
Everything we do with food, drying, cooking, smoking, salting, or
adding spices is an attempt to keep from being poisoned
by our microscopic competitors. They're constantly mutating and involving to
stay ahead of us. One way we reduce food born
illnesses is to add another spice to the recipe. Of course,
(14:22):
that makes the food taste different, and the people who
learned to like the new taste are healthier for it.
All right, Well, speaking of health, I do want to
take a closer look at what spicy foods can and
can't do to our bodies, including whether they can actually
help us live longer. But before we crank up the heat,
let's cool off with a quick break. You're listening to
(14:52):
Part Time Genius, and we're talking about the mouth watering
signs behind some of our favorite spicy foods. All right,
make up. So a minute ago you were telling us
about the ability that's certain spices have to repel bacteria,
and humans aren't the only animal to reap that benefit.
For example, I was reading about a study where researchers
at Virginia Tech found that when chickens infected with Salmonella
eat a kept sation heavy diet, the germs within their
(15:15):
internal organs are reduced by half when you compare those
two infected chickens that just eat a normal So, I mean,
I've got to ask you, if you already eat the
chili eating chickens, like, would they taste spicier? You know?
Knowing how much I used to love the spicy chicken
sandwich from Wendy's, don't you think I thought about this?
I spent a lot of time wondering this. But I'm
afraid the answer is no, and they actually got a
(15:38):
taste panel together to determine that the flavor of the
chilis did not make its way into the meat. And
by the way, can you imagine being on this taste
being served a plate of chicken that was once riddled
with salmonella? I feel like the lack of spice would
be the least of my worries in that one. I know. Well,
what's crazy to me is that those chickens must have
scarfed down like a ton of chilies to kill such
(15:58):
a large percentage of bacteria area, and yet they didn't
even feel the peppers heat one bit. And this is
something else I know we touched on in our flavor episode.
But the reason for the chicken's immunity is that the
birds actually lack that trip the one food receptor, and
that actually makes them ideal customers for chili peppers, because
birds digestive tracts are much easier on seeds than those
(16:18):
of mammals. All right, so chili peppers and birds have
a pretty good thing going with one another. But I
do want to be selfish and and talk a little
bit more about what spicy foods can do for us.
Mango so you know, because the compounds found in our
go to spices actually have medicinal properties that humans have
relied on for centuries. For instance, you've probably heard that
some spices contain properties that reduce inflammation, including turmeric, ginger,
(16:43):
and garlic. And there was even a study out of U. C.
L A a a few years back where researchers use capsation
to hinder the growth of prostate cancer cells. And this
was this was in mice and and it actually left
their healthy cells intact. Not to be fair, there isn't
much evidence to suggest that eating chilies can prevent you
from getting cancer. But if nothing else, I mean, the
research gives some hope that peppers could help keep the
(17:05):
disease and check sometime in the future. Well, and there's
another area where scientists hope to harness this power of spice,
and that's with pain management. So we explained earlier how
cap says and activates receptors that trigger that familiar burning
sensation in our mouths. But what we didn't mention is
that our ability to perceive that burn is deadened the
longer the chemical stays in your mouth. And so how
(17:26):
does that work. Well, there's this mysterious compound it's called
substance P and that's involved in this pain perception, and
it gets released when the cap station activates our pain receptors.
But after a while, our body's supply gets depleted and
the brain stops receiving these pain signals altogether. So, of
course cap station's ability to drain substance P and pain
(17:47):
perception is an exciting prospect for the medical community. In fact,
it's already been used in these topical creams to treat arthritis,
and there's actually hope that it can be applied to
anesthesia and pain killers at some point too. You so
this a little off topic, but you mentioned how kept
satan continues to burn for as long as it stays
in our mouths, and actually, I'm just curious is there
a way to get it out of there faster? Because
(18:09):
you always hear that milk is great for soothing the
burning mouth, But most of the time when I'm eating
something spicy, I don't have a glass of milk next
to me. So, but at least it's supposed to be
better than water, but I've never actually fact checked this. Yeah,
so definitely don't bother with water that that just spreads
the capt sastion around your mouth without killing any of
its heat, and instead, this is a case where the
rumors really are true, because milk can absolutely neutralize that
(18:32):
chili burn. And that's because dairy products and kept satan
both contain non polar molecules which are capable of dissolving
one another. But that doesn't Milks only trick because it
also contains something called casin, and this protein is able
to attract kept says and molecules to itself. So not
only will milk or ice cream neutralize the kept sacan
molecules that happens to touch, but it actually pulls any
(18:55):
stragglers off of our trip V one receptors and it
dissolves those as well. I always wondered whether that actually works,
But that that makes sense, all right. Well, there's one
more potential health benefit to eating spicy foods that I
want to talk about, and that's the idea that doing
so will actually help you live longer. And believe it
or not, there is some research to back up this claim.
(19:15):
Back in two thousand fifteen, there was an international team
of researchers and they were taking in an in depth
look at the connection between spicy food consumption and longer lifespans.
And what they found was that eating spicy food at
least once a day for six or seven days a
week can actually lower mortality rates by four when compared
to eating spicy food just once a week. So I
(19:37):
love this idea of eating spicy food that many times
a week, but who actually eats that much spicy food?
I don't know who does well. The researchers were very
smart about this because they focused their study on Chinese people,
who tend to eat way more spicy dishes on average
than most other cultures. And on that front, the team
had no shortage of volunteers. They actually studied the diets
of almost half a million people in China. Now, all
(20:00):
the participants were between the ages of thirty and seventy nine.
They all agreed to take part in the study for
a full seven years. That's kind of amazing. So what
did the study consist of exactly? Well, the participants were
surveyed about how often they eat spicy foods and which
kinds of spices that they liked most, and then the
team followed up with im periodically to see how their
health was holding up and if there were any major
(20:21):
changes to their diets. During the seven year span of
the study, more than twenty thousand of these subjects died,
But after factoring in things like smoking and income and
several other factors, the scientists found that the daily chili
eaters really did have a lower chance of dying prematurely.
And not only was the overall risk of death lower
for them, the mortality rate for specific causes was to
(20:43):
and you know this included conditions like cancer and certain
forms of heart and respiratory disease as well. That's pretty incredible,
But eating spice foods every day is probably too much
for people who weren't raised on that kind of diet.
Was there any upside to like a more modest spicy
food diet? Actually there was, I was curry about the
same thing. So the researchers found that those who ate
spicy food once or twice a week still had a
(21:06):
mortality rate ten percent lower than those of people who
avoided spicy food altogether. And while these are pretty modest
numbers overall, it's still impressive that a single type of
food could have that much of an effect on our
risk of death. But in fairness, the study never actually
proved causation. I mean, there could have been other factors
beyond spicy food consumption that would, you know, give participants
(21:27):
alonger lifespan than others. But you know, if you're a
fan of spicy foods already, i'd say upping your intake
probably couldn't hurt. Well, I'm glad you gave that little
disclaimer because one thing I noticed while researching is that
there's an awful lot of misinformation out there about spicy foods.
And you know, the Internet is chock full of stories
about how eating too many palapenos will give you an ulcer,
or how kept satan can burn off your taste buds.
(21:50):
So with that in mind, I thought it might be
fun to take a look at some of these claims
and see which ones hold water and which ones are
just hot air. All right, that sounds good, But before
we get to it, let's take another break. Okay, man, go,
(22:15):
So let's debunk some fiery food miss Where do you
want to start? Definitely, So let's go with one I
already mentioned, which is that spicy foods can cause ulcers
and acid reflux. And this one gets a lot of
traction because plenty of people report acid reflux or heartburn
after eating chili peppers or hot sauce. And for a
long time, doctors actually thought spicy foods where the main
cause of ulcers and like. But now we know better
(22:37):
because scientists were able to identify the stomach bacteria that's
actually responsible for these conditions. All right, what about the
people who get heartburn or acid reflux after eating something spicy?
Are you saying that's just a coincidence or what? No?
Definitely not so. Hot peppers can certainly aggravate these kinds
of pre existing conditions, but they actually can't cause them.
So someone who's been diagnosed with gurd, for instance, might
(23:00):
want to steer clear of chilies. But there's no truth
to the idea that eating too much spicy food will
bring on these conditions and people who don't already have them.
All right, Well, what about this urban legend you sometimes
hear about people overdosing on hot sauce. I mean, it
sounds far fetched, but some folks really put this stuff
on everything. So the idea of using too much of it,
I mean, it does maybe seem plausible, So I believe
(23:22):
it or not, this one is actually true. So cap
sasan is a super deadly poison in its pure form,
which is why most hot sauces only contained trace amounts
of the substance. And still, if you consumed enough hot sauce,
it could definitely do some damage. For example, there was
this one study that concluded that a person of average
weight would have to ingest nearly half a gallon of
(23:42):
Tabasco sauce to overdose and pass out. So of course
it would take a lot more than that to actually
kill you, but it's totally possible in theory. You know, mango,
you can actually die from drinking too much water. I
don't know if I feel like maybe I should share
this story, but if you remember when we were in college,
we were sitting around on one of the quads the air,
and this reporter came up and there had unfortunately been
(24:03):
a death from somebody who had, you know, had way
too much alcohol one night, and so obviously that's a
very serious story. But we're all just looking to sit
around and have a good time outside and suddenly there
was a reporter wanting to ask us all these questions,
and she asked the question, did you know you can
die from drinking too much alcohol? I said, you can
die from drinking too much water. And so the very
next day this one story, the only time I was
(24:24):
ever quoted in the local newspaper was Will Pearson reports,
you can die from drinking too much water. So it
is a fact. That was one of our first facts.
So having that much hot sauce in your bag maybe
isn't the greatest idea. And and actually, you know, the
gym is another place where hot sauce won't do you
any favors. Speaking of other myths, it always heard that
(24:45):
spicy foods can help boost your metabolism. The idea there
is that when your body gets all hot and sweaty
while eating spicy foods, that it must be burning calories
in the process, you know, since that's what happens when
you exercise. But suddenly that's not the case with capsationan
Studies have shown that any increase in metabolic rate broad
on buy spicy foods is statistically negligible. So, in other words,
(25:07):
the thousand calories you get from an over stuffed burrito,
you can't really undo that by just putting a lot
of hot sauce on it. Well, since you just took
a potential benefit of spicy foods off the table, I'm
going to even things out and do the same thing
with one of its potential harms. So you've probably heard
that rumor that too much spice can do permanent harm
to your taste buds, and I mean it doesn't sound
too crazy on paper, right, Like kept satan can lead
(25:28):
to such an overwhelming mouth burn that it can be
tough to taste anything else for a while, which might
make you think that your taste buds are well and
truly busted. But the good news is that kept satan
doesn't damage your taste buds tissue at all. Yeah. I
was actually gonna say, you know, much like hair, taste
buds are constantly being replaced, so the idea of doing
permanent damage to them it doesn't really make much sense. Yeah,
(25:50):
I mean, eating hot foods and I'm talking temperature here
and not spiciness can kill taste buds, but like you said,
those are replaced pretty often, so even that wouldn't be permanent.
And when it comes to capt sation, there's really no
risk at all because, like we've been saying, the chemical
interacts with their heat sensing receptors, not our taste buds.
So even if your tongue feels numb after eating something spicy,
(26:12):
your taste buds are totally fine. All right. Well, now
that we've covered some things that spicy foods can't do
to your body, I do quickly want to go over
some of the things that actually they can do. So
for starters, spicy foods like curries, hot sauce and with
sabi absolutely can make your nose run. And the reason
why comes down to the natural irritants those foods contain.
(26:32):
So in the case of chili peppers, that would be captation. Now,
when the chemicals come in contact with your mucus membranes,
the membranes get inflamed and switched into defense mode. And
this is where things get runny, because those membranes start
producing mucus in order to trap any irritants that might
be floating around unchecked. Then any captured intruders are drained
out through the nasal passage. So that really is sound
(26:54):
advised to, you know, eat hot soup or something when
you want to clear out your sinuses. Actually I always
been told that, but really I have learned more recently
that that's not the case, because while eating something spicy
can provide temporary relief for stuff he knows in the
long run, this may actually cause more harm than good.
So if you think about, the chemicals I mentioned can
also irritate the muscles in your nose, and that causes
(27:16):
them to let in more air than they normally would.
And when this happens, the receptors in the nose inform
the brain that you're breathing much easier. So the net
result is that you think the hot souper whatever worked
its magic, but in reality, you've just fallen for yet
another one of capsuations chemical tricks. Now, once the heat
wears off, your nose muscles contract again and you're back
(27:37):
to feeling all stuffed up, except now you've got a
bunch of extra snot on top of everything else, and
it actually leaves you worse off than you were before.
How crazy, I've never heard that before. So, being of
spicy rigans that do a number on your insides, do
you know something similar happens in our intestine when we
eat spicy foods. You might remember from the Flavor episode
that we don't just have taste buds in our mouths,
(27:59):
but all throughout our bodies, including in our colon and
intestines and when these intestinal buds, since the inflammatory chemicals
we've been talking about, they really a message to the
brain telling it to get these airton's out of the body.
A s, A p wow. So this is why spicy
foods can make some people nauseous or or even send
them running the bathroom. Exactly so the brain responds to
(28:20):
the threat by speeding up bowel movements, and if you
eat something especially spicy, your body basically goes to death.
Con one for examtly, I read this case study about
a guy who ate a bunch of ghost peppers at
an eating contest, and he actually threw up so hard
as a result, he actually tore a hole in his esophage.
Was the guy? Okay? He was? And thankfully he got
(28:40):
treatment fast enough to prevent what otherwise could have been
a pretty nasty death. I'm guessing he'll lay off the
ghost peppers from now on too. But that's not like
Tristan over here has been dominating his spread of spicy
foods for what like half an hour. Now. I don't
know what's going on with this guy, but that intestinal
irritation should have kicked in by now. What do you think? Yeah,
I mean, I I think he's got a stomach of steel.
(29:01):
But it's only a matter of time at this point.
All right, well we better work quick. So what do
you say we get to the fact off Yeah. So,
I'm not sure if you realize this, but our offices
sit in the second spiciest city in America, and these
(29:22):
are the cities where people most commonly order spicy foods
at restaurants. This is according to grub Hub. Charlotte actually
takes the crown at number one, and it's followed by Atlanta,
then Austin, Dallas, and then San Francisco. Okay, so, given
your love of spice and the ability to look as
cool as a cucumber when you eat spicy foods, I've
got a place for you to visit. So have you
(29:42):
ever been to the Brick Lane curry House in New York?
So they have this ridiculously hot curry and they put
customers up to the challenge to see who can finish
the dish that it served him. It's actually so hot
that the chef wears a gas mask as he prepares it.
But if you finish it, you'll get a free beer,
a picture on their website, and it's certificate showing you've
done it, a certificate mango. Well that sounds nice, but
(30:04):
I'm actually going for a bigger prize. And that's why
I think I'm going to take on the Inferno Soup
Challenge at Nitaly's Time mex Cuisine in St. Petersburg, Florida,
and the soup has noodles and chicken and a bunch
of vegetables, but it also has crushed ghost peppers and
lots of other peppers. To try it out, you actually
have to be over eighteen. You have to be of
sound mind and health, and of course sober. And it
(30:28):
wasn't until two twelve that someone finally managed to finish
off a bowl and they won undred bucks as a result.
That is a lot of money, but I can't imagine
that it's worth it for the pain that that must
go at all. So I was actually laughing about this.
I was reading about how many Mexicans are often puzzled
by how Americans basically guzzle sauce. I mean, we love
it that much. It was a great quote from a
(30:48):
chef that was interviewed by The New York Times. He's
based in Mexico, and he said, watching someone shovel in
sausa with tortilla chips is strange to Mexicans, like how
an American would feel watching someone drink sal addressing out
of a bottle. So speaking himself. So, I'm not sure
if you remember this, but back in the U s
DA officially declared salsa vegetable and this allowed schools to
(31:10):
start serving it more and and this of course irked
ketchup makers because they had tried and failed to get
the same designation years before. This does make me feel
a little bit better about all of our salza consumption
when we go to Mexican restaurants and you find of
frightening how much we eat when we're there. But yeah,
now we're eating a lot of vegetables. I'm pretty sure
this means we're super healthy eaters. The five tortilla chips
(31:32):
are are good for you to write, let's go with Yes,
we'll do it an episode on that on a later date.
So I'm going to declare you the winner of today's
fact off. Congratulations Mango, Thanks so much well, and thank
you guys for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time
Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and Wouldn't
(31:53):
be possible without several brilliant people who do the important
things we couldn't even begin to understand. Christa McNeil does
the endit thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and
does the mixey mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the
exact producer thing. Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with
support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown
and Lucas Adams and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show
to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what
(32:15):
you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if you really
really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave a
good review for us. Do we do? We forget Jason?
Jason who
Guess we bengo with that. Well, you're probably not gonna
be surprised to hear this, but I think I'm ready
for another spice. Really yeah, I've been training. I'm serious
about this now, listeners. So you know, Mango and I
both love spicy foods. It almost took professional help for
me to break my unhealthy addiction to jalapeno kettle chips
was a few years ago. Of course, I just traded
(00:20):
it out for another habit, and so now I eat
at least a couple of atomic fireballs every day. That's
probably an understatement. Maybe there's four or five. But when
it comes to eating spicy food, I always think I'm
a spice champ until I eat with Mango. So we'll
go to an Indian or a Sechuan place, will ard
up a few dishes with some extra spice. Our food
comes up, and that's when the sweating starts. It's so
(00:43):
irritating because I love the spiciness, I honestly do. But
you will be over there downing all this crazy spicy stuff,
even requesting these extra spice bombs like you do with
the Ramen place, and it doesn't seem to affect you
at all. Meanwhile, ten minutes in, I look like I've
just finished a marathon. It's ridiculous. Well, I mean, I'm
told you it doesn't matter, right, it's just as long
as you enjoy the food. Yeah, but the wait staff
(01:05):
always seems concerned, and you just look at them. It's
like you guys have the secret unspoken language. Will just
not and with that simple nod, it's as if you're saying, like,
it's okay, he's fine, he's just from Alabama, not India.
And then they look at you and they not as
if to say, we felt pretty safe and assuming he's
not from India, But are you sure he's okay? I mean,
(01:25):
just look at him over there. It's amazing this language
that you guys have. You look back as if to say,
trust me, he's fine. This happens every time. But if
you have a couple of bath towels, you know, one
for his forehead and one to soak up the pool
on the floor, that that that would be great. Well,
I'm pretty sure that's all in your head. We don't
have any sort of secret language. But I do have
these cards printed up. That's a what you're about to
(01:46):
see is them pretty but don't panic. That's thoughtful of you.
But either way, we both love spicy food and the
science of spicy food is fascinating to both of us.
So we had so many questions going into this episode.
How did humans evolved to enjoy spicy food, what does
it predict about our personalities if we enjoy that spicy kick?
And is there any evidence that eating spicy foods could
(02:09):
help us live longer? So let's get started. Hey there,
(02:37):
podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh
how Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof
glass demonstrating just how well he can take the heat,
that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, I really
do wish our listeners could see this, because Tristan's assembled
this spicy food feast for the ages here. I mean,
look at this stuff that he's eating. He's got an
(02:58):
order of drunken noodles, a Sishwan hot pot, a bowl
of five alarm chili, a pile of ghost pepper chicken wings.
I mean, it's ridiculous, and he's just going to town
on all of this. Guy is a machine. I honestly
feel he's just like showing off at this point. I
feel like you should have, like that cartoon, steam coming
out of his ears, but he hasn't even broken a sweat.
(03:19):
It is a little bit eerie. Well all right. You know,
while most people enjoy adding at least a little spice
to their meals, some can definitely handle the heat better
than others. So we'll take a look at why that
is a little bit later in the show. But to
kick things off, I thought we should talk about what
makes spicy foods taste hot in the first place, or really,
I should say what makes us think that spicy foods
(03:39):
taste hot, Because you might remember from one of our
earlier episodes, the one we did on the science of flavor,
spicy isn't really a taste at all. In reality, the
burning sensations we feel from spicy foods, those are the
result of our sense of touch, rather than from taste
or smell. Yeah, I remember involvest like some sort of
chemical trickery, right, Like it has something to do with
how kept satan interacts with our touch receptors. Yeah, that's right.
(04:02):
So kept satan, of course, is the chemical and the
seeds and the tissue of the chili peppers that gives
them their heat. And you know, pepper plants actually evolve
kept satan as a protective measure, and this was to
help them, you know, protect them against animals and insects
so they can have a better shot at dispersing their seeds. So,
for instance, when humans and other mammals eat chili peppers,
we tend to make it so the seeds can't be
(04:23):
germinated later when we inevitably part ways with them and
we grind the seeds too much with our molars, or
else we destroy them completely in our harsh digestive tracks.
So as a deterrent to this, pepper plants started producing
a chemical that activates these special touch receptors, and they
found all over the inner layer of our skin and
that includes our mouths now. This receptor is called trip
(04:45):
V one, and it's the body's early warning system for
hot temperatures. So think about if you sit on the
sun too long and your skin starts to burn a little,
or when your hand grazes the hot stove and you
know to pull it away really quickly. That's trip V
one at work. And this is where the chemical trickery
that you mentioned comes in because kept sastan actually works
by lowering the energy needed to activate those trip V
(05:07):
one defenses. So, while these receptors would typically read any
mouth temperature over a hundred and nine degrees fahrenheit as
a burn, once they've bonded with KEP sasan anything higher
than nine three degrees fahrenheit registers as dangerously hot. So
that's interesting. But I mean, the average mouth temperature for
humans is ninety eight point six, So kep sason actually
(05:27):
makes these receptors think your whole mouth is burning. Yeah,
that's exactly what happens, and that's why sometimes feels like
your entire mouth is on fire when you eat something spicy,
because you know, as far as your brain knows it,
it actually is. So then if we have these touch
receptors all over our body and not just in our mouths,
why don't we feel like our skin is burning anytime
we touch a chili pepper. Remember we're talking about the
inner layer of our skin that has these receptors, so
(05:49):
we can really only feel the burn of the peppers
on areas where our outer skin layer is thin enough
for that cap sason to get through. So the mouth
is obviously one of the places the eyes are and
other and that's why you're never supposed to touch your
eyes after you've been handling chili peppers. And there are
also a few other thin skinned places that we don't
have the name here, but you can probably use your
(06:10):
imagination for these. Yeah. I actually remember reading this old
Hungarian proverb about how good paprika burns twice, so I
think I know where you're getting at. I love how
you always try to find a way to use a
Hungarian proverb, but I should mention that it's not just
kept station that triggers this false flag burning sensation. You know.
Research also shows that trippy one receptors also respond to
(06:32):
other quote unquote hot foods, including black pepper and ginger.
And there's also trip a one that so called was
sabi receptor, and that's activated by a certain oil that's
found in foods like horseradish and mustards, onions, garlic, cinnamon,
and of course with sabi. I like how, at first
class it seems like all those plants have come up
with this genius way of making themselves unpalatable to mammals.
(06:54):
But then when you think about it. There's this one
stubborn species that doesn't seem to have gotten the memo right,
and humans, like, we love our spicy foods, and we
even have contest just to see how much heat we
can stomach. It's weird that we do these things that
cause pain, or at least make us think that we're
in pain. It is pretty strange when you when you
think about it. But there was this one researcher who
(07:15):
was a professor of psychology. His name was Paul Rosen.
This was back in the nineteen eighties, and he actually
proved that there is a connection between thrill seeking and
eating spicy foods. So here's how rose inputs it. He says, humans,
and only humans, seem to get pleasure out of innately
negative experiences when they are aware that the body signals
are not really threatening. There's a term for it. He
(07:37):
calls it benign masochism. And it's the same inclination that
makes it fun to write a rollercoaster or watch a
scary movie. I mean, all these things provoke these real
biological responses in our bodies, but since we know at
some level there's no real danger, the end result is
actually a pleasurable feeling rather than this purely painful one.
So I actually read up on where that pleasure stems
(07:59):
from and the it was pretty surprising because it turns
out while men and women both enjoy spicy foods, the
reason why they do it are completely different. So for women,
research shows that they simply like the burning sting that
spicy foods provide. And since cap sasan has been known
to trigger the release of endorphins, you know, maybe that's
not so surprising, right, it makes you feel good. But men,
(08:19):
on the other hand, tend to partake in spicy foods
because they like the attention. And bro, we like attention.
We love that spotlight. So there's no denying that. Downing
a whole plate of like hot wings, you know it's
going to get you some street cred in some circles.
And our culture actually views being able to withstand spicy
foods as a sign of strength and the lust for
that kind of like social glory that seems to drive
(08:40):
male spicy food fans more than anything else. Well, that
actually makes sense in a a lot of a study I
was reading about from a few years ago. The researchers
at the University of Grenoble, and they got together a
hundred and fourteen men, and they brought them together in
a testing lab and had them sit down to a
meal of mashed potatoes and hot sauce. I don't know why, calm,
I don't know why it need to be mashed potatoes,
(09:01):
but actually I would do this, But how much hot
sauce was to be used was completely up to the participants. Now,
in the end, the men who used the most were
also the ones with the highest levels of testosterone. Not
only that, but those who have the spiciest palettes also
shared tendencies toward social dominance, aggression, and risk taking, all
of which have been linked already to high testosterone. It's
(09:24):
kind of crazy how much of a predictor if someone's
personality can be for whether or not they like spicy foods.
Like appriendly people who are into action movies and really
adventurous hobbies are six times more likely to enjoy hot
foods than those who prefer tamor pastimes. Which is why
I know you were not part of this study, because
I know you love spicy foods. But if I think
about all the movies you've recommended over the years, the
(09:46):
ones that had the most action in them were probably
I don't know, like Rushmore and Amalie maybe having like
the least action packed movies ever. So I do love
to read those descriptions of like aggression and dominance and
all that. So there's something great about it. I worked
in this Italian restaurant where all the white staff was Mexican,
and they were doing this thing where they got these
(10:07):
cucumbers and they put all the spice on it, and
they were calling the students over and one by one
giving them theseus and then uh, and then everyone's mouth
was on fire. And then they called me over and
they were like watch, watch wasatch and they had anyone.
It's like it wasn't that spicy. It felt like a superpower. Yeah,
that's pretty pretty amazing, And I do wonder if it's
(10:28):
always been that way, Like is that how humans started
eating spicy food to begin with? You imagine like this
prehistoric daredevil that came along and decided to chew through
that burn because he liked the adrenaline boost or I
don't really know. Yeah, I mean I was reading about
this archaeological dig from a few years ago where these
researchers found evidence that Europeans had been spicing up their
(10:49):
food for way longer than we once thought. Like Apparently
they found the remains of cooking pots from more than
six thousand years ago at three different dig sites, and
this is in northern Europe, and inside the pots they
found the bits of plant residue, some of which looked
a lot like modern day garlic mustard seeds. So I mean,
but what makes you sure that they were eating the
seeds for the heat specifically, Well, mustard seeds, like most
(11:11):
spicy plants we've been talking about, have next to no
nutritional values, so they wouldn't have been providing much energy
on their own, but they definitely would have added like
a sharp bite to whatever else was on the menu.
And that's ultimately what researchers believe we're dealing with here,
the earliest known use of spices and cooking. That is
pretty interesting. And you know, I always assume prehistoric humans
had these bland diets for the most part. I don't
(11:32):
know why. I would just think about what was available.
So I just imagine like lots of cooked meat and
whatever edible plants that could scrounge up that might help
them just survive with that being the main goal. So
it is kind of fond to hear that they might
have been experimenting with different foods and adding flavor just
for flavors sake. Yeah, and I'm actually glad our ancestors
were willing to try new things, because that's likely why
(11:52):
spicy foods taste so good to us in the first place.
What do you mean. I thought we were in agreement
that spiciness is more of a mouth feel and not
a tape east. Yeah, I mean, we explain why our
bodies register certain foods is hot, but those foods still
carry their own flavors to I mean, think about what
a chili pepper tastes like. Right, it feels hot, but
it tastes kind of earthy or bitter or maybe even
(12:13):
mildly fruity. So you're saying we inherited a taste for
those flavors from like as far back as cave men. Well,
I mean maybe not cave mean exactly, but these beneficial
traits are passed down both culturally and genetically, and that
includes our preferences for specific flavors. All right, But is
liking the flavor of spicy foods a beneficial trade? I
mean you just said that most spices have basically zero
(12:34):
nutritional value though, right, that's true, but you've got to
keep in mind that spices have these antimicrobial properties that
can be very useful for preventing food spoilage. So I
think about chilies and other hot peppers, they can actually
kill up to seventy five of food born bacteria, and
then spices like garlic, onion, oregano that can actually wipe
out the full So while today we mostly use spices
(12:57):
to enhance our foods flavor men, researchers actually think the
original reason for using spices was to kill that food
born bacteria and fungi. And if that's the case, like
the people who ate those foods with antibacterial spices were
likely the healthiest ones in their communities. And not only
would these prehistoric chefs have passed on their cooking tips
to their offspring, they also would have likely passed along
(13:19):
this taste for spicy bacteria killing cuisine. I think I
get it then, So from an evolutionary perspective, it makes
sense to have taste receptors that are well tuned to
spicy flavors, because you know, ultimately that would make us
likely to seek out foods that are protected against spoilage,
and I guess in theory would keep us alive longer exactly,
And making this connection between microbes and spices was no
(13:40):
easy task. A research team at Cornell only pulled it
off by scouring a mountain of data. And this included
nearly five thousand recipes from nine three cookbooks, and it
represented the traditional meat based cuisines of I guess thirty
six countries. And in the end, the researchers were able
to conclude that quote recipes are a record of the
history of the evely snary race between us and our parasites.
(14:02):
The micros are competing with us for the same food.
Everything we do with food, drying, cooking, smoking, salting, or
adding spices is an attempt to keep from being poisoned
by our microscopic competitors. They're constantly mutating and involving to
stay ahead of us. One way we reduce food born
illnesses is to add another spice to the recipe. Of course,
(14:22):
that makes the food taste different, and the people who
learned to like the new taste are healthier for it.
All right, Well, speaking of health, I do want to
take a closer look at what spicy foods can and
can't do to our bodies, including whether they can actually
help us live longer. But before we crank up the heat,
let's cool off with a quick break. You're listening to
(14:52):
Part Time Genius, and we're talking about the mouth watering
signs behind some of our favorite spicy foods. All right,
make up. So a minute ago you were telling us
about the ability that's certain spices have to repel bacteria,
and humans aren't the only animal to reap that benefit.
For example, I was reading about a study where researchers
at Virginia Tech found that when chickens infected with Salmonella
eat a kept sation heavy diet, the germs within their
(15:15):
internal organs are reduced by half when you compare those
two infected chickens that just eat a normal So, I mean,
I've got to ask you, if you already eat the
chili eating chickens, like, would they taste spicier? You know?
Knowing how much I used to love the spicy chicken
sandwich from Wendy's, don't you think I thought about this?
I spent a lot of time wondering this. But I'm
afraid the answer is no, and they actually got a
(15:38):
taste panel together to determine that the flavor of the
chilis did not make its way into the meat. And
by the way, can you imagine being on this taste
being served a plate of chicken that was once riddled
with salmonella? I feel like the lack of spice would
be the least of my worries in that one. I know. Well,
what's crazy to me is that those chickens must have
scarfed down like a ton of chilies to kill such
(15:58):
a large percentage of bacteria area, and yet they didn't
even feel the peppers heat one bit. And this is
something else I know we touched on in our flavor episode.
But the reason for the chicken's immunity is that the
birds actually lack that trip the one food receptor, and
that actually makes them ideal customers for chili peppers, because
birds digestive tracts are much easier on seeds than those
(16:18):
of mammals. All right, so chili peppers and birds have
a pretty good thing going with one another. But I
do want to be selfish and and talk a little
bit more about what spicy foods can do for us.
Mango so you know, because the compounds found in our
go to spices actually have medicinal properties that humans have
relied on for centuries. For instance, you've probably heard that
some spices contain properties that reduce inflammation, including turmeric, ginger,
(16:43):
and garlic. And there was even a study out of U. C.
L A a a few years back where researchers use capsation
to hinder the growth of prostate cancer cells. And this
was this was in mice and and it actually left
their healthy cells intact. Not to be fair, there isn't
much evidence to suggest that eating chilies can prevent you
from getting cancer. But if nothing else, I mean, the
research gives some hope that peppers could help keep the
(17:05):
disease and check sometime in the future. Well, and there's
another area where scientists hope to harness this power of spice,
and that's with pain management. So we explained earlier how
cap says and activates receptors that trigger that familiar burning
sensation in our mouths. But what we didn't mention is
that our ability to perceive that burn is deadened the
longer the chemical stays in your mouth. And so how
(17:26):
does that work. Well, there's this mysterious compound it's called
substance P and that's involved in this pain perception, and
it gets released when the cap station activates our pain receptors.
But after a while, our body's supply gets depleted and
the brain stops receiving these pain signals altogether. So, of
course cap station's ability to drain substance P and pain
(17:47):
perception is an exciting prospect for the medical community. In fact,
it's already been used in these topical creams to treat arthritis,
and there's actually hope that it can be applied to
anesthesia and pain killers at some point too. You so
this a little off topic, but you mentioned how kept
satan continues to burn for as long as it stays
in our mouths, and actually, I'm just curious is there
a way to get it out of there faster? Because
(18:09):
you always hear that milk is great for soothing the
burning mouth, But most of the time when I'm eating
something spicy, I don't have a glass of milk next
to me. So, but at least it's supposed to be
better than water, but I've never actually fact checked this. Yeah,
so definitely don't bother with water that that just spreads
the capt sastion around your mouth without killing any of
its heat, and instead, this is a case where the
rumors really are true, because milk can absolutely neutralize that
(18:32):
chili burn. And that's because dairy products and kept satan
both contain non polar molecules which are capable of dissolving
one another. But that doesn't Milks only trick because it
also contains something called casin, and this protein is able
to attract kept says and molecules to itself. So not
only will milk or ice cream neutralize the kept sacan
molecules that happens to touch, but it actually pulls any
(18:55):
stragglers off of our trip V one receptors and it
dissolves those as well. I always wondered whether that actually works,
But that that makes sense, all right. Well, there's one
more potential health benefit to eating spicy foods that I
want to talk about, and that's the idea that doing
so will actually help you live longer. And believe it
or not, there is some research to back up this claim.
(19:15):
Back in two thousand fifteen, there was an international team
of researchers and they were taking in an in depth
look at the connection between spicy food consumption and longer lifespans.
And what they found was that eating spicy food at
least once a day for six or seven days a
week can actually lower mortality rates by four when compared
to eating spicy food just once a week. So I
(19:37):
love this idea of eating spicy food that many times
a week, but who actually eats that much spicy food?
I don't know who does well. The researchers were very
smart about this because they focused their study on Chinese people,
who tend to eat way more spicy dishes on average
than most other cultures. And on that front, the team
had no shortage of volunteers. They actually studied the diets
of almost half a million people in China. Now, all
(20:00):
the participants were between the ages of thirty and seventy nine.
They all agreed to take part in the study for
a full seven years. That's kind of amazing. So what
did the study consist of exactly? Well, the participants were
surveyed about how often they eat spicy foods and which
kinds of spices that they liked most, and then the
team followed up with im periodically to see how their
health was holding up and if there were any major
(20:21):
changes to their diets. During the seven year span of
the study, more than twenty thousand of these subjects died,
But after factoring in things like smoking and income and
several other factors, the scientists found that the daily chili
eaters really did have a lower chance of dying prematurely.
And not only was the overall risk of death lower
for them, the mortality rate for specific causes was to
(20:43):
and you know this included conditions like cancer and certain
forms of heart and respiratory disease as well. That's pretty incredible,
But eating spice foods every day is probably too much
for people who weren't raised on that kind of diet.
Was there any upside to like a more modest spicy
food diet? Actually there was, I was curry about the
same thing. So the researchers found that those who ate
spicy food once or twice a week still had a
(21:06):
mortality rate ten percent lower than those of people who
avoided spicy food altogether. And while these are pretty modest
numbers overall, it's still impressive that a single type of
food could have that much of an effect on our
risk of death. But in fairness, the study never actually
proved causation. I mean, there could have been other factors
beyond spicy food consumption that would, you know, give participants
(21:27):
alonger lifespan than others. But you know, if you're a
fan of spicy foods already, i'd say upping your intake
probably couldn't hurt. Well, I'm glad you gave that little
disclaimer because one thing I noticed while researching is that
there's an awful lot of misinformation out there about spicy foods.
And you know, the Internet is chock full of stories
about how eating too many palapenos will give you an ulcer,
or how kept satan can burn off your taste buds.
(21:50):
So with that in mind, I thought it might be
fun to take a look at some of these claims
and see which ones hold water and which ones are
just hot air. All right, that sounds good, But before
we get to it, let's take another break. Okay, man, go,
(22:15):
So let's debunk some fiery food miss Where do you
want to start? Definitely, So let's go with one I
already mentioned, which is that spicy foods can cause ulcers
and acid reflux. And this one gets a lot of
traction because plenty of people report acid reflux or heartburn
after eating chili peppers or hot sauce. And for a
long time, doctors actually thought spicy foods where the main
cause of ulcers and like. But now we know better
(22:37):
because scientists were able to identify the stomach bacteria that's
actually responsible for these conditions. All right, what about the
people who get heartburn or acid reflux after eating something spicy?
Are you saying that's just a coincidence or what? No?
Definitely not so. Hot peppers can certainly aggravate these kinds
of pre existing conditions, but they actually can't cause them.
So someone who's been diagnosed with gurd, for instance, might
(23:00):
want to steer clear of chilies. But there's no truth
to the idea that eating too much spicy food will
bring on these conditions and people who don't already have them.
All right, Well, what about this urban legend you sometimes
hear about people overdosing on hot sauce. I mean, it
sounds far fetched, but some folks really put this stuff
on everything. So the idea of using too much of it,
I mean, it does maybe seem plausible, So I believe
(23:22):
it or not, this one is actually true. So cap
sasan is a super deadly poison in its pure form,
which is why most hot sauces only contained trace amounts
of the substance. And still, if you consumed enough hot sauce,
it could definitely do some damage. For example, there was
this one study that concluded that a person of average
weight would have to ingest nearly half a gallon of
(23:42):
Tabasco sauce to overdose and pass out. So of course
it would take a lot more than that to actually
kill you, but it's totally possible in theory. You know, mango,
you can actually die from drinking too much water. I
don't know if I feel like maybe I should share
this story, but if you remember when we were in college,
we were sitting around on one of the quads the air,
and this reporter came up and there had unfortunately been
(24:03):
a death from somebody who had, you know, had way
too much alcohol one night, and so obviously that's a
very serious story. But we're all just looking to sit
around and have a good time outside and suddenly there
was a reporter wanting to ask us all these questions,
and she asked the question, did you know you can
die from drinking too much alcohol? I said, you can
die from drinking too much water. And so the very
next day this one story, the only time I was
(24:24):
ever quoted in the local newspaper was Will Pearson reports,
you can die from drinking too much water. So it
is a fact. That was one of our first facts.
So having that much hot sauce in your bag maybe
isn't the greatest idea. And and actually, you know, the
gym is another place where hot sauce won't do you
any favors. Speaking of other myths, it always heard that
(24:45):
spicy foods can help boost your metabolism. The idea there
is that when your body gets all hot and sweaty
while eating spicy foods, that it must be burning calories
in the process, you know, since that's what happens when
you exercise. But suddenly that's not the case with capsationan
Studies have shown that any increase in metabolic rate broad
on buy spicy foods is statistically negligible. So, in other words,
(25:07):
the thousand calories you get from an over stuffed burrito,
you can't really undo that by just putting a lot
of hot sauce on it. Well, since you just took
a potential benefit of spicy foods off the table, I'm
going to even things out and do the same thing
with one of its potential harms. So you've probably heard
that rumor that too much spice can do permanent harm
to your taste buds, and I mean it doesn't sound
too crazy on paper, right, Like kept satan can lead
(25:28):
to such an overwhelming mouth burn that it can be
tough to taste anything else for a while, which might
make you think that your taste buds are well and
truly busted. But the good news is that kept satan
doesn't damage your taste buds tissue at all. Yeah. I
was actually gonna say, you know, much like hair, taste
buds are constantly being replaced, so the idea of doing
permanent damage to them it doesn't really make much sense. Yeah,
(25:50):
I mean, eating hot foods and I'm talking temperature here
and not spiciness can kill taste buds, but like you said,
those are replaced pretty often, so even that wouldn't be permanent.
And when it comes to capt sation, there's really no
risk at all because, like we've been saying, the chemical
interacts with their heat sensing receptors, not our taste buds.
So even if your tongue feels numb after eating something spicy,
(26:12):
your taste buds are totally fine. All right. Well, now
that we've covered some things that spicy foods can't do
to your body, I do quickly want to go over
some of the things that actually they can do. So
for starters, spicy foods like curries, hot sauce and with
sabi absolutely can make your nose run. And the reason
why comes down to the natural irritants those foods contain.
(26:32):
So in the case of chili peppers, that would be captation. Now,
when the chemicals come in contact with your mucus membranes,
the membranes get inflamed and switched into defense mode. And
this is where things get runny, because those membranes start
producing mucus in order to trap any irritants that might
be floating around unchecked. Then any captured intruders are drained
out through the nasal passage. So that really is sound
(26:54):
advised to, you know, eat hot soup or something when
you want to clear out your sinuses. Actually I always
been told that, but really I have learned more recently
that that's not the case, because while eating something spicy
can provide temporary relief for stuff he knows in the
long run, this may actually cause more harm than good.
So if you think about, the chemicals I mentioned can
also irritate the muscles in your nose, and that causes
(27:16):
them to let in more air than they normally would.
And when this happens, the receptors in the nose inform
the brain that you're breathing much easier. So the net
result is that you think the hot souper whatever worked
its magic, but in reality, you've just fallen for yet
another one of capsuations chemical tricks. Now, once the heat
wears off, your nose muscles contract again and you're back
(27:37):
to feeling all stuffed up, except now you've got a
bunch of extra snot on top of everything else, and
it actually leaves you worse off than you were before.
How crazy, I've never heard that before. So, being of
spicy rigans that do a number on your insides, do
you know something similar happens in our intestine when we
eat spicy foods. You might remember from the Flavor episode
that we don't just have taste buds in our mouths,
(27:59):
but all throughout our bodies, including in our colon and
intestines and when these intestinal buds, since the inflammatory chemicals
we've been talking about, they really a message to the
brain telling it to get these airton's out of the body.
A s, A p wow. So this is why spicy
foods can make some people nauseous or or even send
them running the bathroom. Exactly so the brain responds to
(28:20):
the threat by speeding up bowel movements, and if you
eat something especially spicy, your body basically goes to death.
Con one for examtly, I read this case study about
a guy who ate a bunch of ghost peppers at
an eating contest, and he actually threw up so hard
as a result, he actually tore a hole in his esophage.
Was the guy? Okay? He was? And thankfully he got
(28:40):
treatment fast enough to prevent what otherwise could have been
a pretty nasty death. I'm guessing he'll lay off the
ghost peppers from now on too. But that's not like
Tristan over here has been dominating his spread of spicy
foods for what like half an hour. Now. I don't
know what's going on with this guy, but that intestinal
irritation should have kicked in by now. What do you think? Yeah,
I mean, I I think he's got a stomach of steel.
(29:01):
But it's only a matter of time at this point.
All right, well we better work quick. So what do
you say we get to the fact off Yeah. So,
I'm not sure if you realize this, but our offices
sit in the second spiciest city in America, and these
(29:22):
are the cities where people most commonly order spicy foods
at restaurants. This is according to grub Hub. Charlotte actually
takes the crown at number one, and it's followed by Atlanta,
then Austin, Dallas, and then San Francisco. Okay, so, given
your love of spice and the ability to look as
cool as a cucumber when you eat spicy foods, I've
got a place for you to visit. So have you
(29:42):
ever been to the Brick Lane curry House in New York?
So they have this ridiculously hot curry and they put
customers up to the challenge to see who can finish
the dish that it served him. It's actually so hot
that the chef wears a gas mask as he prepares it.
But if you finish it, you'll get a free beer,
a picture on their website, and it's certificate showing you've
done it, a certificate mango. Well that sounds nice, but
(30:04):
I'm actually going for a bigger prize. And that's why
I think I'm going to take on the Inferno Soup
Challenge at Nitaly's Time mex Cuisine in St. Petersburg, Florida,
and the soup has noodles and chicken and a bunch
of vegetables, but it also has crushed ghost peppers and
lots of other peppers. To try it out, you actually
have to be over eighteen. You have to be of
sound mind and health, and of course sober. And it
(30:28):
wasn't until two twelve that someone finally managed to finish
off a bowl and they won undred bucks as a result.
That is a lot of money, but I can't imagine
that it's worth it for the pain that that must
go at all. So I was actually laughing about this.
I was reading about how many Mexicans are often puzzled
by how Americans basically guzzle sauce. I mean, we love
it that much. It was a great quote from a
(30:48):
chef that was interviewed by The New York Times. He's
based in Mexico, and he said, watching someone shovel in
sausa with tortilla chips is strange to Mexicans, like how
an American would feel watching someone drink sal addressing out
of a bottle. So speaking himself. So, I'm not sure
if you remember this, but back in the U s
DA officially declared salsa vegetable and this allowed schools to
(31:10):
start serving it more and and this of course irked
ketchup makers because they had tried and failed to get
the same designation years before. This does make me feel
a little bit better about all of our salza consumption
when we go to Mexican restaurants and you find of
frightening how much we eat when we're there. But yeah,
now we're eating a lot of vegetables. I'm pretty sure
this means we're super healthy eaters. The five tortilla chips
(31:32):
are are good for you to write, let's go with Yes,
we'll do it an episode on that on a later date.
So I'm going to declare you the winner of today's
fact off. Congratulations Mango, Thanks so much well, and thank
you guys for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time
Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and Wouldn't
(31:53):
be possible without several brilliant people who do the important
things we couldn't even begin to understand. Christa McNeil does
the endit thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and
does the mixey mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the
exact producer thing. Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with
support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown
and Lucas Adams and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show
to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what
(32:15):
you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if you really
really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave a
good review for us. Do we do? We forget Jason?
Jason who
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.