My wife can swear that her mouth is on fire after eating certain foods, but when I try the same exact food I often barely detect the heat she’s talking about.
I wasn’t always like this, it was an acquired taste. Sweet chilli used to be hot to me, now I dabble with habanero, naga, etc so I know something has changed physiologically…what was it?
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While your body typically doesn’t like pain, your body tends to love when you narrowly survive pain. That’s good: you survived. Your brain releases a bunch of chemicals that reinforce that behavior.
Spicy stuff scratches that itch in a controlled manner. Your brain gets a kick out of it, so it pushes you to try it again. I find it funny: A lot of people think they’re “super strong manly men” for being tolerant to spice. In reality, all that means is that they’re masochists XD
There’s also something more basic: Desensitization. After a while, your brain starts to turn off some TRPV1 receptors (the “spice detectors” on your tongue). This means it takes more spice to notice something as hot.
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