Why can some people not handle spicy food while others can't get enough of it? Can you train yourself to eat spicy food? Can eating spicy food help you lose weight? Here are a few things about eating spicy food to help you understand it better.
Eating spicy food doesn't necessarily help with weight loss
Although capsaicin can boost your metabolic rate and reduce fat accumulation, this doesn't mean eating spicy food will definitely lead to weight loss. It only plays a role in promoting weight loss when you consume the same amount of calories. Relying solely on eating spicy food or applying chili paste to lose weight is rather impractical.
Eating spicy food doesn't necessarily harm your stomach
Animal experiments have found that a small amount of capsaicin stimulates the blood vessels in the stomach, which in turn protects the stomach wall and is beneficial for the stomach. However, eating a lot of spicy food can irritate the gastrointestinal tract. People who already have stomach ulcers or gastritis should especially eat less spicy food to avoid irritation.
Drinking ice milk is better than ice water for relieving spiciness
Spiciness is not actually a taste, but a pain sensation. Whether it's on the tongue or other parts of the body, any place with nerves can feel spiciness. For example, if you don't wear gloves when cutting chili peppers, your hands will also feel a burning pain. To relieve the spiciness on your tongue, the main goal is to dilute this painful sensation. Ice water is not as effective as ice milk because milk not only dilutes the spiciness, but the casein it contains can also counteract the irritation caused by capsaicin.
Eating spicy food isn't necessarily bad for your skin
Some people find that they break out in pimples every time they eat spicy food, but there is currently no evidence to show that eating spicy food damages the skin. If you get pimples after eating a spicy hot pot, it might be because you ate fried hot pot ingredients, or because you consumed too much oil, which worsened your skin.
You can train yourself to eat spicy food
Within 2 to 4 days after eating spicy food, your sensitivity to tastes like sour, sweet, bitter, and salty becomes blunted, and your sensitivity to spiciness also decreases. Therefore, the more often you eat spicy food, the more accepting of it you will become.
Eating spicy food can be addictive
The pain sensation from spicy food causes the brain to release chemicals with pain-relieving effects. When the burning sensation fades, it creates a feeling of relief and pleasure, which can even lead to an addiction to spicy food.