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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Repeated consumption of spicy foods causes downregulation of the **TRPV1 receptor.** The TRPV1 receptor is the primary receptor that capsaicin binds to, whereby activation of said receptor, and subsequent firing of the neuron associated with it, causes the feeling of “spicy.”
It’s like drugs – if you consume drugs that act as agonists at dopamine receptors, those dopamine receptors will become downregulated (essentially, the total receptor density is reduced by comparison to pre-drugs) – and it then requires more of that drug to induce the same effect.
In the case with spicy foods, repeatedly triggering the TRPV1 receptor with capsaicin causes your body to reduce the total density of TRPV1 receptors, meaning it takes more and more spice to induce the same sensation – because you then have fewer receptors around to process the stimuli.
This was a bit of an oversimplification, but the easiest way to ELI5
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