A Perk of Our Evolution: Pleasure in Pain of Chilies

[elleng]

In my kitchen, as I turn my homegrown habaneros into hot sauce while wearing a respirator (I’m not kidding) I have my own small celebration of the evolutionary serendipity that has allowed pain-loving humans to enjoy such tasty pain.

Some experts argue that we like chilies because they are good for us. They can help lower blood pressure, may have some antimicrobial effects, and they increase salivation, which is good if you eat a boring diet based on one bland staple crop like corn or rice. The pain of chilies can even kill other pain, a concept supported by recent research.

Others, notably Dr. Paul Rozin at the University of Pennsylvania, argue that the beneficial effects are too small to explain the great human love of chili-spiced food. “I don’t think they have anything to with why people eat and like it,” he said in an interview. Dr. Rozin, who studies other human emotions and likes and dislikes (“I am the father of disgust in psychology,” he says) thinks that we’re in it for the pain. “This is a theory,” he emphasizes. “I don’t know that this is true.” . .

But he has evidence for what he calls benign masochism. For example, he tested chili eaters by gradually increasing the pain, or, as the pros call it, the pungency, of the food, right up to the point at which the subjects said they just could not go further. When asked after the test what level of heat they liked the best, they chose the highest level they could stand, “just below the level of unbearable pain.” As Delbert McClinton sings (about a different line of research), “It felt so good to hurt so bad.”



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/science/21peppers.html?_r=1

[blaze]

1. I bought the T-shirt with the capsaicin molecule on it.

That line in the article made me laugh!!

Not sure how to describe how much heat I like. There's just a certain level where the heat overpowers the taste. That's where I draw the line. But I bet that line is in a very different place for all of us.

[Warpy]

2. Chiles can also awaken your taste buds to flavors you didn't know

were already there. I got euchered into KFC when I first moved here, gang going out to lunch during orientation, that sort of thing. One of the NA people got an order of jalapenos with it. Just a nibble of jalapeno pepper made that chicken go from grease to gourmet, all the flavorings they'd put in the coating jumping up to the forefront ahead of the grease.

It was the only time I really liked the stuff.

[alfredo]

5. It stimulates endorphins. It affects me like a runner's high.

It is very high in Vit C.

It enhances the flavor of cocoa.

[tigereye]

3. don't you think it fits with the "challenging oneself" model, though or simply

those who love extremes? I also suspect there's some genetic element involved... :think: :D

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. You know what is funny?

Parrots cannot feel the Capsaicin, they eat Habaneros as if they were fruit...

So when we make peppers, they get their portion, and they just dig in for the sweetness in them.