More specifically:
Why, when a person from a region that typically eats spicy food eats something you think is hot, do they say “this isn’t spicy” even if there’s like 5 jalapenos (exaggeration.) Can they taste the spice but they’re just used to it and are being mean to my caucasian tastebuds, or can they literally not register any spice. If the second one, how does this work? If the prior, how does being used to spicy things work?
Edit: on reflection, 5 jalapenos clearly isnt an exaggeration.
Edit 2: I’m talking MY caucasian tastebuds. Me being from Europe where spice is not everywhere. I’m not saying white people can’t be used to spice. (That’s sort of what I was asking anyway, is spice tolerance nature or nurture)
In: Biology
When they say “this isn’t spicy” what they are saying is “this is not intolerably burning my mouth, and I’ve had spicier.”
As with most tastes, people build up tolerances. Think of someone drinking whiskey for the first time vs the 1,000th time. Or bitter flavors; children hate them but adults are much more open to it.
Likewise, ‘spice” is basically a chemical irritant put out by plants to keep the wrong animal from eating it. Humans didn’t evolve to eat those plants, and so feel the irritation. But if we keep doing it a lot, the nerve endings start to transmitting less of the signal. So if you eat a lot, you build up tolerance.
In cultures where people eat a lot of spicy foods, the adults are all eating spicy food, the food is made available to children, and children generally try the food. Many cultures don’t make separate meals for kids after a fairly young age, so if the kids want to eat, they need to eat foods with at least some spice in it, and so start building up at least a little tolerance from a young age. Anyone from anywhere can do the same.
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