WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Does Spicy Food Burn Your Tastebuds?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Lauren Bolga bomb here with a classic Brainstuff episode

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<v Speaker 1>from the archives. This one concerns the thrilling sensation of

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<v Speaker 1>eating spicy food. How does that work? And can it

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<v Speaker 1>really burn out your taste buds? Hey brain Stuff, Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>Bugle bomb here. Spiciness is a very personal preference. Some

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<v Speaker 1>like their food hot, some like it even hotter, and

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<v Speaker 1>some won't even start to chow down until they've slopped

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<v Speaker 1>on the saracha, piled on the halapenos, and laid on

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<v Speaker 1>enough horseradish too literally bring tears to their eyes, which

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<v Speaker 1>practically begs the question, what's wrong with those people? Do

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<v Speaker 1>these folks actually enjoy watering eyes, as searing tongue and

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<v Speaker 1>a runny nose at the dinner table? But more alarmingly,

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<v Speaker 1>one might wonder are they setting themselves up for everything

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<v Speaker 1>else to taste extra bland? Can spicy food burn out

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<v Speaker 1>your taste buds? Robin Dandoz studies exactly these types of questions,

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<v Speaker 1>and assistant professor in the Department of Food Science at Cornell,

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<v Speaker 1>Dando has spent his albeit still young career studying how

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<v Speaker 1>our bodies interact with the food that we consume and

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<v Speaker 1>what comes to spicy foods in our bodies. It's a

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<v Speaker 1>tricky one. When you put a spicy food in your mouth,

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<v Speaker 1>whether it's a halopeno or whatever is in that five

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<v Speaker 1>alarm chili you just ordered, you're often ingesting a chemical

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<v Speaker 1>compound found in peppers called kept saysin. Kept says in

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<v Speaker 1>interacts with receptors in your mouth, which immediately send a

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<v Speaker 1>signal to your brain. The signal goes something like this, fire, fire, hot, hot,

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<v Speaker 1>hot fire. It's not some joke that your mouth is

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<v Speaker 1>playing on your brain, or not quite. The receptors in

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<v Speaker 1>your mouth react, the cap says, in the same way

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<v Speaker 1>they would if there were an actual fire on your tongue.

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<v Speaker 1>That's why the brain, which takes these things quite literally

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<v Speaker 1>sets off your body's sprinkler system. Your heart starts racing,

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<v Speaker 1>firing up that fight or flight mechanism. Your blood rushes

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<v Speaker 1>to the skin surface to cool things down. You start

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<v Speaker 1>to salivate, your nose may start to run. For some people,

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<v Speaker 1>this is considered fun. It's a culinary experience. They can't

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<v Speaker 1>get enough of it. For those who prefer more subtle

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<v Speaker 1>tastes and dry eyes. The whole idea of too spicy

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<v Speaker 1>foods may be difficult to comprehend, but too many spicy

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<v Speaker 1>food lovers it's the hotter the better. Although it may

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<v Speaker 1>seem like a fifty shades of Red kind of thing,

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<v Speaker 1>Dando says that people who eat extremely spicy foods often

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<v Speaker 1>do it because they have to in order to get

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<v Speaker 1>the experience. That's because spicy food connosours probably build up

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<v Speaker 1>a tolerance to spiciness. Dando said, there's some pretty strong

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<v Speaker 1>evidence that suggests that you can, we would call it desensitization,

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<v Speaker 1>simply being exposed to something constantly, you start to build

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<v Speaker 1>up a tolerance to it. Physically speaking, desensitization can act

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<v Speaker 1>at the nerve, at the receptor, or in the brain.

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<v Speaker 1>Dando explains. Essentially, if you're stimulating a nerve a lot,

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<v Speaker 1>it can become less responsive with kepsays, and in particular,

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<v Speaker 1>one of the neurotransmitters responsible for signaling pain to the

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<v Speaker 1>brain can become depleted easily. Likewise, a cell can reprogram

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<v Speaker 1>to express fewer of its receptors if they're frequently in use.

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<v Speaker 1>And finally, the brain can basically turn down the volume

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<v Speaker 1>of a signal in the short term. It's like how

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<v Speaker 1>if you get in cold water at the beach. It's

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<v Speaker 1>intensely cold, but in a minute or so it doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>feel so frigid. If you've ever been a spicy food fanatic,

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<v Speaker 1>you may have wondered what year after year of all

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<v Speaker 1>of that fiery goodness may be doing to your taste buds.

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<v Speaker 1>For sure, spicy foods can get to some people. They've

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<v Speaker 1>been associated with acid reflux and heartburn. But as far

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<v Speaker 1>as your mouth and those precious taste buds go, don't worry.

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<v Speaker 1>Dando says. People seem to talk about spicy food destroys

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<v Speaker 1>your taste buds. That's not really true. It's not physically

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<v Speaker 1>damaging the tissues. It's just kind of simulating the conditions

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<v Speaker 1>where they would get damaged. So spice it up, brave foodies,

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<v Speaker 1>and keep a glass of whole milk or a side

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<v Speaker 1>of bread or rice handy just in case. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on the article can spicy food really burnout

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<v Speaker 1>taste buds? On how stuff works dot Com? Written by

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<v Speaker 1>John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio

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<v Speaker 1>in partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it's

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<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio.

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