Can I get used to eating spicy food?

Dear Senserely Yours,

Every time I go out to eat with my barkada, we always get in conflict because of the food choice. I don’t like spicy food but they all do. Majority wins, right? But I still feel a consensus decision should be made. But I can’t be too selfish. So now, I’m thinking of trying to practice eating spicy food so that it would be totally cool for me for my barkada to order spicy food. Before I start my practice, I need to know if this will work first. So, will I be successful?

Love,

Percy

Hi Percy! I find it amusing that you have the same name as my cat! (She says hi, btw.) Anyway, I will give you a short answer to your question first: Yes, you will be successful. Before I elaborate on that, let me tell you a bit about spiciness.

In actuality, spiciness is not a taste quality, unlike sweet and salty. You actually experience pain when you eat spicy food. So I think you’re smart in avoiding spicy (painful) food! When you eat spicy food, the chemical compounds that promote the spiciness “taste” activate your polymodal nociceptors located on your tongue. These polymodal nociceptors are tasked to detect change in thermal temperature within the range of 39-51°C. So these nociceptors only detect high temperature changes and this is the reason why our brain thinks that our tongue is “burning” when we eat spicy food.

Some recent studies actually show that one’s personality traits show great connection with one’s love for spicy food. People who scored high in Sensation Seeking trait prefer spicy food to non-spicy ones. In the same way, those who scored high in Sensitivity to Reward also prefer spicy food.

Now to elaborate my answer to your question… If you eat spicy food continually, you can actually be desensitized or less sensitive to spiciness. Take note, though, that your sensitivity to pain does not decrease per se, but actually, you are just more used to the pain that it causes that it does not bother you much anymore. Your pain threshold still remains the same. This short video by TED-Ed about spiciness is something worthwhile to watch--

Now, why don’t you start eating some spicy food? I suggest start your practice with hot sauce on your pizza!

Senserely yours,

Jade

References:

Byrnes, N.K. & Hayes, J.E. (2013). Personality factors predict spicy food liking and intake. Food Quality & Preference, 28(1), 213-221. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2012.09.008

Dubin, A.E. & Patapoutian, A. (2010). Nociceptors: The Sensors of the pain pathway. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 120(11), 3760–3772. doi: 10.1172/JCI42843

Eveleth, R. (n.d.). The Science of spiciness. Retrieved from http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-science-of-spiciness-rose-eveleth

Lawless, H.T. & Heymann, H. (2010). Sensory evaluation of food: Principles and practices (2^nd edition). New York, NY: Springer.