Speaker 1: Guess we bengo with that. Well, you're probably not gonna
Speaker 1: be surprised to hear this, but I think I'm ready
Speaker 1: for another spice. Really yeah, I've been training. I'm serious
Speaker 1: about this now, listeners. So you know, Mango and I
Speaker 1: both love spicy foods. It almost took professional help for
Speaker 1: me to break my unhealthy addiction to jalapeno kettle chips
Speaker 1: was a few years ago. Of course, I just traded
Speaker 1: it out for another habit, and so now I eat
Speaker 1: at least a couple of atomic fireballs every day. That's
Speaker 1: probably an understatement. Maybe there's four or five. But when
Speaker 1: it comes to eating spicy food, I always think I'm
Speaker 1: a spice champ until I eat with Mango. So we'll
Speaker 1: go to an Indian or a Sechuan place, will ard
Speaker 1: up a few dishes with some extra spice. Our food
Speaker 1: comes up, and that's when the sweating starts. It's so
Speaker 1: irritating because I love the spiciness, I honestly do. But
Speaker 1: you will be over there downing all this crazy spicy stuff,
Speaker 1: even requesting these extra spice bombs like you do with
Speaker 1: the Ramen place, and it doesn't seem to affect you
Speaker 1: at all. Meanwhile, ten minutes in, I look like I've
Speaker 1: just finished a marathon. It's ridiculous. Well, I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: told you it doesn't matter, right, it's just as long
Speaker 1: as you enjoy the food. Yeah, but the wait staff
Speaker 1: always seems concerned, and you just look at them. It's
Speaker 1: like you guys have the secret unspoken language. Will just
Speaker 1: not and with that simple nod, it's as if you're saying, like,
Speaker 1: it's okay, he's fine, he's just from Alabama, not India.
Speaker 1: And then they look at you and they not as
Speaker 1: if to say, we felt pretty safe and assuming he's
Speaker 1: not from India, But are you sure he's okay? I mean,
Speaker 1: just look at him over there. It's amazing this language
Speaker 1: that you guys have. You look back as if to say,
Speaker 1: trust me, he's fine. This happens every time. But if
Speaker 1: you have a couple of bath towels, you know, one
Speaker 1: for his forehead and one to soak up the pool
Speaker 1: on the floor, that that that would be great. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's all in your head. We don't
Speaker 1: have any sort of secret language. But I do have
Speaker 1: these cards printed up. That's a what you're about to
Speaker 1: see is them pretty but don't panic. That's thoughtful of you.
Speaker 1: But either way, we both love spicy food and the
Speaker 1: science of spicy food is fascinating to both of us.
Speaker 1: So we had so many questions going into this episode.
Speaker 1: How did humans evolved to enjoy spicy food, what does
Speaker 1: it predict about our personalities if we enjoy that spicy kick?
Speaker 1: And is there any evidence that eating spicy foods could
Speaker 1: help us live longer? So let's get started. Hey there,
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh
Speaker 1: how Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof
Speaker 1: glass demonstrating just how well he can take the heat,
Speaker 1: that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, I really
Speaker 1: do wish our listeners could see this, because Tristan's assembled
Speaker 1: this spicy food feast for the ages here. I mean,
Speaker 1: look at this stuff that he's eating. He's got an
Speaker 1: order of drunken noodles, a Sishwan hot pot, a bowl
Speaker 1: of five alarm chili, a pile of ghost pepper chicken wings.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's ridiculous, and he's just going to town
Speaker 1: on all of this. Guy is a machine. I honestly
Speaker 1: feel he's just like showing off at this point. I
Speaker 1: feel like you should have, like that cartoon, steam coming
Speaker 1: out of his ears, but he hasn't even broken a sweat.
Speaker 1: It is a little bit eerie. Well all right. You know,
Speaker 1: while most people enjoy adding at least a little spice
Speaker 1: to their meals, some can definitely handle the heat better
Speaker 1: than others. So we'll take a look at why that
Speaker 1: is a little bit later in the show. But to
Speaker 1: kick things off, I thought we should talk about what
Speaker 1: makes spicy foods taste hot in the first place, or really,
Speaker 1: I should say what makes us think that spicy foods
Speaker 1: taste hot, Because you might remember from one of our
Speaker 1: earlier episodes, the one we did on the science of flavor,
Speaker 1: spicy isn't really a taste at all. In reality, the
Speaker 1: burning sensations we feel from spicy foods, those are the
Speaker 1: result of our sense of touch, rather than from taste
Speaker 1: or smell. Yeah, I remember involvest like some sort of
Speaker 1: chemical trickery, right, Like it has something to do with
Speaker 1: how kept satan interacts with our touch receptors. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: So kept satan, of course, is the chemical and the
Speaker 1: seeds and the tissue of the chili peppers that gives
Speaker 1: them their heat. And you know, pepper plants actually evolve
Speaker 1: kept satan as a protective measure, and this was to
Speaker 1: help them, you know, protect them against animals and insects
Speaker 1: so they can have a better shot at dispersing their seeds. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, when humans and other mammals eat chili peppers,
Speaker 1: we tend to make it so the seeds can't be
Speaker 1: germinated later when we inevitably part ways with them and
Speaker 1: we grind the seeds too much with our molars, or
Speaker 1: else we destroy them completely in our harsh digestive tracks.
Speaker 1: So as a deterrent to this, pepper plants started producing
Speaker 1: a chemical that activates these special touch receptors, and they
Speaker 1: found all over the inner layer of our skin and
Speaker 1: that includes our mouths now. This receptor is called trip
Speaker 1: V one, and it's the body's early warning system for
Speaker 1: hot temperatures. So think about if you sit on the
Speaker 1: sun too long and your skin starts to burn a little,
Speaker 1: or when your hand grazes the hot stove and you
Speaker 1: know to pull it away really quickly. That's trip V
Speaker 1: one at work. And this is where the chemical trickery
Speaker 1: that you mentioned comes in because kept sastan actually works
Speaker 1: by lowering the energy needed to activate those trip V
Speaker 1: one defenses. So, while these receptors would typically read any
Speaker 1: mouth temperature over a hundred and nine degrees fahrenheit as
Speaker 1: a burn, once they've bonded with KEP sasan anything higher
Speaker 1: than nine three degrees fahrenheit registers as dangerously hot. So
Speaker 1: that's interesting. But I mean, the average mouth temperature for
Speaker 1: humans is ninety eight point six, So kep sason actually
Speaker 1: makes these receptors think your whole mouth is burning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what happens, and that's why sometimes feels like
Speaker 1: your entire mouth is on fire when you eat something spicy,
Speaker 1: because you know, as far as your brain knows it,
Speaker 1: it actually is. So then if we have these touch
Speaker 1: receptors all over our body and not just in our mouths,
Speaker 1: why don't we feel like our skin is burning anytime
Speaker 1: we touch a chili pepper. Remember we're talking about the
Speaker 1: inner layer of our skin that has these receptors, so
Speaker 1: we can really only feel the burn of the peppers
Speaker 1: on areas where our outer skin layer is thin enough
Speaker 1: for that cap sason to get through. So the mouth
Speaker 1: is obviously one of the places the eyes are and
Speaker 1: other and that's why you're never supposed to touch your
Speaker 1: eyes after you've been handling chili peppers. And there are
Speaker 1: also a few other thin skinned places that we don't
Speaker 1: have the name here, but you can probably use your
Speaker 1: imagination for these. Yeah. I actually remember reading this old
Speaker 1: Hungarian proverb about how good paprika burns twice, so I
Speaker 1: think I know where you're getting at. I love how
Speaker 1: you always try to find a way to use a
Speaker 1: Hungarian proverb, but I should mention that it's not just
Speaker 1: kept station that triggers this false flag burning sensation. You know.
Speaker 1: Research also shows that trippy one receptors also respond to
Speaker 1: other quote unquote hot foods, including black pepper and ginger.
Speaker 1: And there's also trip a one that so called was
Speaker 1: sabi receptor, and that's activated by a certain oil that's
Speaker 1: found in foods like horseradish and mustards, onions, garlic, cinnamon,
Speaker 1: and of course with sabi. I like how, at first
Speaker 1: class it seems like all those plants have come up
Speaker 1: with this genius way of making themselves unpalatable to mammals.
Speaker 1: But then when you think about it. There's this one
Speaker 1: stubborn species that doesn't seem to have gotten the memo right,
Speaker 1: and humans, like, we love our spicy foods, and we
Speaker 1: even have contest just to see how much heat we
Speaker 1: can stomach. It's weird that we do these things that
Speaker 1: cause pain, or at least make us think that we're
Speaker 1: in pain. It is pretty strange when you when you
Speaker 1: think about it. But there was this one researcher who
Speaker 1: was a professor of psychology. His name was Paul Rosen.
Speaker 1: This was back in the nineteen eighties, and he actually
Speaker 1: proved that there is a connection between thrill seeking and
Speaker 1: eating spicy foods. So here's how rose inputs it. He says, humans,
Speaker 1: and only humans, seem to get pleasure out of innately
Speaker 1: negative experiences when they are aware that the body signals
Speaker 1: are not really threatening. There's a term for it. He
Speaker 1: calls it benign masochism. And it's the same inclination that
Speaker 1: makes it fun to write a rollercoaster or watch a
Speaker 1: scary movie. I mean, all these things provoke these real
Speaker 1: biological responses in our bodies, but since we know at
Speaker 1: some level there's no real danger, the end result is
Speaker 1: actually a pleasurable feeling rather than this purely painful one.
Speaker 1: So I actually read up on where that pleasure stems
Speaker 1: from and the it was pretty surprising because it turns
Speaker 1: out while men and women both enjoy spicy foods, the
Speaker 1: reason why they do it are completely different. So for women,
Speaker 1: research shows that they simply like the burning sting that
Speaker 1: spicy foods provide. And since cap sasan has been known
Speaker 1: to trigger the release of endorphins, you know, maybe that's
Speaker 1: not so surprising, right, it makes you feel good. But men,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, tend to partake in spicy foods
Speaker 1: because they like the attention. And bro, we like attention.
Speaker 1: We love that spotlight. So there's no denying that. Downing
Speaker 1: a whole plate of like hot wings, you know it's
Speaker 1: going to get you some street cred in some circles.
Speaker 1: And our culture actually views being able to withstand spicy
Speaker 1: foods as a sign of strength and the lust for
Speaker 1: that kind of like social glory that seems to drive
Speaker 1: male spicy food fans more than anything else. Well, that
Speaker 1: actually makes sense in a a lot of a study I
Speaker 1: was reading about from a few years ago. The researchers
Speaker 1: at the University of Grenoble, and they got together a
Speaker 1: hundred and fourteen men, and they brought them together in
Speaker 1: a testing lab and had them sit down to a
Speaker 1: meal of mashed potatoes and hot sauce. I don't know why, calm,
Speaker 1: I don't know why it need to be mashed potatoes,
Speaker 1: but actually I would do this, But how much hot
Speaker 1: sauce was to be used was completely up to the participants. Now,
Speaker 1: in the end, the men who used the most were
Speaker 1: also the ones with the highest levels of testosterone. Not
Speaker 1: only that, but those who have the spiciest palettes also
Speaker 1: shared tendencies toward social dominance, aggression, and risk taking, all
Speaker 1: of which have been linked already to high testosterone. It's
Speaker 1: kind of crazy how much of a predictor if someone's
Speaker 1: personality can be for whether or not they like spicy foods.
Speaker 1: Like appriendly people who are into action movies and really
Speaker 1: adventurous hobbies are six times more likely to enjoy hot
Speaker 1: foods than those who prefer tamor pastimes. Which is why
Speaker 1: I know you were not part of this study, because
Speaker 1: I know you love spicy foods. But if I think
Speaker 1: about all the movies you've recommended over the years, the
Speaker 1: ones that had the most action in them were probably
Speaker 1: I don't know, like Rushmore and Amalie maybe having like
Speaker 1: the least action packed movies ever. So I do love
Speaker 1: to read those descriptions of like aggression and dominance and
Speaker 1: all that. So there's something great about it. I worked
Speaker 1: in this Italian restaurant where all the white staff was Mexican,
Speaker 1: and they were doing this thing where they got these
Speaker 1: cucumbers and they put all the spice on it, and
Speaker 1: they were calling the students over and one by one
Speaker 1: giving them theseus and then uh, and then everyone's mouth
Speaker 1: was on fire. And then they called me over and
Speaker 1: they were like watch, watch wasatch and they had anyone.
Speaker 1: It's like it wasn't that spicy. It felt like a superpower. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's pretty pretty amazing, And I do wonder if it's
Speaker 1: always been that way, Like is that how humans started
Speaker 1: eating spicy food to begin with? You imagine like this
Speaker 1: prehistoric daredevil that came along and decided to chew through
Speaker 1: that burn because he liked the adrenaline boost or I
Speaker 1: don't really know. Yeah, I mean I was reading about
Speaker 1: this archaeological dig from a few years ago where these
Speaker 1: researchers found evidence that Europeans had been spicing up their
Speaker 1: food for way longer than we once thought. Like Apparently
Speaker 1: they found the remains of cooking pots from more than
Speaker 1: six thousand years ago at three different dig sites, and
Speaker 1: this is in northern Europe, and inside the pots they
Speaker 1: found the bits of plant residue, some of which looked
Speaker 1: a lot like modern day garlic mustard seeds. So I mean,
Speaker 1: but what makes you sure that they were eating the
Speaker 1: seeds for the heat specifically, Well, mustard seeds, like most
Speaker 1: spicy plants we've been talking about, have next to no
Speaker 1: nutritional values, so they wouldn't have been providing much energy
Speaker 1: on their own, but they definitely would have added like
Speaker 1: a sharp bite to whatever else was on the menu.
Speaker 1: And that's ultimately what researchers believe we're dealing with here,
Speaker 1: the earliest known use of spices and cooking. That is
Speaker 1: pretty interesting. And you know, I always assume prehistoric humans
Speaker 1: had these bland diets for the most part. I don't
Speaker 1: know why. I would just think about what was available.
Speaker 1: So I just imagine like lots of cooked meat and
Speaker 1: whatever edible plants that could scrounge up that might help
Speaker 1: them just survive with that being the main goal. So
Speaker 1: it is kind of fond to hear that they might
Speaker 1: have been experimenting with different foods and adding flavor just
Speaker 1: for flavors sake. Yeah, and I'm actually glad our ancestors
Speaker 1: were willing to try new things, because that's likely why
Speaker 1: spicy foods taste so good to us in the first place.
Speaker 1: What do you mean. I thought we were in agreement
Speaker 1: that spiciness is more of a mouth feel and not
Speaker 1: a tape east. Yeah, I mean, we explain why our
Speaker 1: bodies register certain foods is hot, but those foods still
Speaker 1: carry their own flavors to I mean, think about what
Speaker 1: a chili pepper tastes like. Right, it feels hot, but
Speaker 1: it tastes kind of earthy or bitter or maybe even
Speaker 1: mildly fruity. So you're saying we inherited a taste for
Speaker 1: those flavors from like as far back as cave men. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean maybe not cave mean exactly, but these beneficial
Speaker 1: traits are passed down both culturally and genetically, and that
Speaker 1: includes our preferences for specific flavors. All right, But is
Speaker 1: liking the flavor of spicy foods a beneficial trade? I
Speaker 1: mean you just said that most spices have basically zero
Speaker 1: nutritional value though, right, that's true, but you've got to
Speaker 1: keep in mind that spices have these antimicrobial properties that
Speaker 1: can be very useful for preventing food spoilage. So I
Speaker 1: think about chilies and other hot peppers, they can actually
Speaker 1: kill up to seventy five of food born bacteria, and
Speaker 1: then spices like garlic, onion, oregano that can actually wipe
Speaker 1: out the full So while today we mostly use spices
Speaker 1: to enhance our foods flavor men, researchers actually think the
Speaker 1: original reason for using spices was to kill that food
Speaker 1: born bacteria and fungi. And if that's the case, like
Speaker 1: the people who ate those foods with antibacterial spices were
Speaker 1: likely the healthiest ones in their communities. And not only
Speaker 1: would these prehistoric chefs have passed on their cooking tips
Speaker 1: to their offspring, they also would have likely passed along
Speaker 1: this taste for spicy bacteria killing cuisine. I think I
Speaker 1: get it then, So from an evolutionary perspective, it makes
Speaker 1: sense to have taste receptors that are well tuned to
Speaker 1: spicy flavors, because you know, ultimately that would make us
Speaker 1: likely to seek out foods that are protected against spoilage,
Speaker 1: and I guess in theory would keep us alive longer exactly,
Speaker 1: And making this connection between microbes and spices was no
Speaker 1: easy task. A research team at Cornell only pulled it
Speaker 1: off by scouring a mountain of data. And this included
Speaker 1: nearly five thousand recipes from nine three cookbooks, and it
Speaker 1: represented the traditional meat based cuisines of I guess thirty
Speaker 1: six countries. And in the end, the researchers were able
Speaker 1: to conclude that quote recipes are a record of the
Speaker 1: history of the evely snary race between us and our parasites.
Speaker 1: The micros are competing with us for the same food.
Speaker 1: Everything we do with food, drying, cooking, smoking, salting, or
Speaker 1: adding spices is an attempt to keep from being poisoned
Speaker 1: by our microscopic competitors. They're constantly mutating and involving to
Speaker 1: stay ahead of us. One way we reduce food born
Speaker 1: illnesses is to add another spice to the recipe. Of course,
Speaker 1: that makes the food taste different, and the people who
Speaker 1: learned to like the new taste are healthier for it.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, speaking of health, I do want to
Speaker 1: take a closer look at what spicy foods can and
Speaker 1: can't do to our bodies, including whether they can actually
Speaker 1: help us live longer. But before we crank up the heat,
Speaker 1: let's cool off with a quick break. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius, and we're talking about the mouth watering
Speaker 1: signs behind some of our favorite spicy foods. All right,
Speaker 1: make up. So a minute ago you were telling us
Speaker 1: about the ability that's certain spices have to repel bacteria,
Speaker 1: and humans aren't the only animal to reap that benefit.
Speaker 1: For example, I was reading about a study where researchers
Speaker 1: at Virginia Tech found that when chickens infected with Salmonella
Speaker 1: eat a kept sation heavy diet, the germs within their
Speaker 1: internal organs are reduced by half when you compare those
Speaker 1: two infected chickens that just eat a normal So, I mean,
Speaker 1: I've got to ask you, if you already eat the
Speaker 1: chili eating chickens, like, would they taste spicier? You know?
Speaker 1: Knowing how much I used to love the spicy chicken
Speaker 1: sandwich from Wendy's, don't you think I thought about this?
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time wondering this. But I'm
Speaker 1: afraid the answer is no, and they actually got a
Speaker 1: taste panel together to determine that the flavor of the
Speaker 1: chilis did not make its way into the meat. And
Speaker 1: by the way, can you imagine being on this taste
Speaker 1: being served a plate of chicken that was once riddled
Speaker 1: with salmonella? I feel like the lack of spice would
Speaker 1: be the least of my worries in that one. I know. Well,
Speaker 1: what's crazy to me is that those chickens must have
Speaker 1: scarfed down like a ton of chilies to kill such
Speaker 1: a large percentage of bacteria area, and yet they didn't
Speaker 1: even feel the peppers heat one bit. And this is
Speaker 1: something else I know we touched on in our flavor episode.
Speaker 1: But the reason for the chicken's immunity is that the
Speaker 1: birds actually lack that trip the one food receptor, and
Speaker 1: that actually makes them ideal customers for chili peppers, because
Speaker 1: birds digestive tracts are much easier on seeds than those
Speaker 1: of mammals. All right, so chili peppers and birds have
Speaker 1: a pretty good thing going with one another. But I
Speaker 1: do want to be selfish and and talk a little
Speaker 1: bit more about what spicy foods can do for us.
Speaker 1: Mango so you know, because the compounds found in our
Speaker 1: go to spices actually have medicinal properties that humans have
Speaker 1: relied on for centuries. For instance, you've probably heard that
Speaker 1: some spices contain properties that reduce inflammation, including turmeric, ginger,
Speaker 1: and garlic. And there was even a study out of U. C.
Speaker 1: L A a a few years back where researchers use capsation
Speaker 1: to hinder the growth of prostate cancer cells. And this
Speaker 1: was this was in mice and and it actually left
Speaker 1: their healthy cells intact. Not to be fair, there isn't
Speaker 1: much evidence to suggest that eating chilies can prevent you
Speaker 1: from getting cancer. But if nothing else, I mean, the
Speaker 1: research gives some hope that peppers could help keep the
Speaker 1: disease and check sometime in the future. Well, and there's
Speaker 1: another area where scientists hope to harness this power of spice,
Speaker 1: and that's with pain management. So we explained earlier how
Speaker 1: cap says and activates receptors that trigger that familiar burning
Speaker 1: sensation in our mouths. But what we didn't mention is
Speaker 1: that our ability to perceive that burn is deadened the
Speaker 1: longer the chemical stays in your mouth. And so how
Speaker 1: does that work. Well, there's this mysterious compound it's called
Speaker 1: substance P and that's involved in this pain perception, and
Speaker 1: it gets released when the cap station activates our pain receptors.
Speaker 1: But after a while, our body's supply gets depleted and
Speaker 1: the brain stops receiving these pain signals altogether. So, of
Speaker 1: course cap station's ability to drain substance P and pain
Speaker 1: perception is an exciting prospect for the medical community. In fact,
Speaker 1: it's already been used in these topical creams to treat arthritis,
Speaker 1: and there's actually hope that it can be applied to
Speaker 1: anesthesia and pain killers at some point too. You so
Speaker 1: this a little off topic, but you mentioned how kept
Speaker 1: satan continues to burn for as long as it stays
Speaker 1: in our mouths, and actually, I'm just curious is there
Speaker 1: a way to get it out of there faster? Because
Speaker 1: you always hear that milk is great for soothing the
Speaker 1: burning mouth, But most of the time when I'm eating
Speaker 1: something spicy, I don't have a glass of milk next
Speaker 1: to me. So, but at least it's supposed to be
Speaker 1: better than water, but I've never actually fact checked this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so definitely don't bother with water that that just spreads
Speaker 1: the capt sastion around your mouth without killing any of
Speaker 1: its heat, and instead, this is a case where the
Speaker 1: rumors really are true, because milk can absolutely neutralize that
Speaker 1: chili burn. And that's because dairy products and kept satan
Speaker 1: both contain non polar molecules which are capable of dissolving
Speaker 1: one another. But that doesn't Milks only trick because it
Speaker 1: also contains something called casin, and this protein is able
Speaker 1: to attract kept says and molecules to itself. So not
Speaker 1: only will milk or ice cream neutralize the kept sacan
Speaker 1: molecules that happens to touch, but it actually pulls any
Speaker 1: stragglers off of our trip V one receptors and it
Speaker 1: dissolves those as well. I always wondered whether that actually works,
Speaker 1: But that that makes sense, all right. Well, there's one
Speaker 1: more potential health benefit to eating spicy foods that I
Speaker 1: want to talk about, and that's the idea that doing
Speaker 1: so will actually help you live longer. And believe it
Speaker 1: or not, there is some research to back up this claim.
Speaker 1: Back in two thousand fifteen, there was an international team
Speaker 1: of researchers and they were taking in an in depth
Speaker 1: look at the connection between spicy food consumption and longer lifespans.
Speaker 1: And what they found was that eating spicy food at
Speaker 1: least once a day for six or seven days a
Speaker 1: week can actually lower mortality rates by four when compared
Speaker 1: to eating spicy food just once a week. So I
Speaker 1: love this idea of eating spicy food that many times
Speaker 1: a week, but who actually eats that much spicy food?
Speaker 1: I don't know who does well. The researchers were very
Speaker 1: smart about this because they focused their study on Chinese people,
Speaker 1: who tend to eat way more spicy dishes on average
Speaker 1: than most other cultures. And on that front, the team
Speaker 1: had no shortage of volunteers. They actually studied the diets
Speaker 1: of almost half a million people in China. Now, all
Speaker 1: the participants were between the ages of thirty and seventy nine.
Speaker 1: They all agreed to take part in the study for
Speaker 1: a full seven years. That's kind of amazing. So what
Speaker 1: did the study consist of exactly? Well, the participants were
Speaker 1: surveyed about how often they eat spicy foods and which
Speaker 1: kinds of spices that they liked most, and then the
Speaker 1: team followed up with im periodically to see how their
Speaker 1: health was holding up and if there were any major
Speaker 1: changes to their diets. During the seven year span of
Speaker 1: the study, more than twenty thousand of these subjects died,
Speaker 1: But after factoring in things like smoking and income and
Speaker 1: several other factors, the scientists found that the daily chili
Speaker 1: eaters really did have a lower chance of dying prematurely.
Speaker 1: And not only was the overall risk of death lower
Speaker 1: for them, the mortality rate for specific causes was to
Speaker 1: and you know this included conditions like cancer and certain
Speaker 1: forms of heart and respiratory disease as well. That's pretty incredible,
Speaker 1: But eating spice foods every day is probably too much
Speaker 1: for people who weren't raised on that kind of diet.
Speaker 1: Was there any upside to like a more modest spicy
Speaker 1: food diet? Actually there was, I was curry about the
Speaker 1: same thing. So the researchers found that those who ate
Speaker 1: spicy food once or twice a week still had a
Speaker 1: mortality rate ten percent lower than those of people who
Speaker 1: avoided spicy food altogether. And while these are pretty modest
Speaker 1: numbers overall, it's still impressive that a single type of
Speaker 1: food could have that much of an effect on our
Speaker 1: risk of death. But in fairness, the study never actually
Speaker 1: proved causation. I mean, there could have been other factors
Speaker 1: beyond spicy food consumption that would, you know, give participants
Speaker 1: alonger lifespan than others. But you know, if you're a
Speaker 1: fan of spicy foods already, i'd say upping your intake
Speaker 1: probably couldn't hurt. Well, I'm glad you gave that little
Speaker 1: disclaimer because one thing I noticed while researching is that
Speaker 1: there's an awful lot of misinformation out there about spicy foods.
Speaker 1: And you know, the Internet is chock full of stories
Speaker 1: about how eating too many palapenos will give you an ulcer,
Speaker 1: or how kept satan can burn off your taste buds.
Speaker 1: So with that in mind, I thought it might be
Speaker 1: fun to take a look at some of these claims
Speaker 1: and see which ones hold water and which ones are
Speaker 1: just hot air. All right, that sounds good, But before
Speaker 1: we get to it, let's take another break. Okay, man, go,
Speaker 1: So let's debunk some fiery food miss Where do you
Speaker 1: want to start? Definitely, So let's go with one I
Speaker 1: already mentioned, which is that spicy foods can cause ulcers
Speaker 1: and acid reflux. And this one gets a lot of
Speaker 1: traction because plenty of people report acid reflux or heartburn
Speaker 1: after eating chili peppers or hot sauce. And for a
Speaker 1: long time, doctors actually thought spicy foods where the main
Speaker 1: cause of ulcers and like. But now we know better
Speaker 1: because scientists were able to identify the stomach bacteria that's
Speaker 1: actually responsible for these conditions. All right, what about the
Speaker 1: people who get heartburn or acid reflux after eating something spicy?
Speaker 1: Are you saying that's just a coincidence or what? No?
Speaker 1: Definitely not so. Hot peppers can certainly aggravate these kinds
Speaker 1: of pre existing conditions, but they actually can't cause them.
Speaker 1: So someone who's been diagnosed with gurd, for instance, might
Speaker 1: want to steer clear of chilies. But there's no truth
Speaker 1: to the idea that eating too much spicy food will
Speaker 1: bring on these conditions and people who don't already have them.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, what about this urban legend you sometimes
Speaker 1: hear about people overdosing on hot sauce. I mean, it
Speaker 1: sounds far fetched, but some folks really put this stuff
Speaker 1: on everything. So the idea of using too much of it,
Speaker 1: I mean, it does maybe seem plausible, So I believe
Speaker 1: it or not, this one is actually true. So cap
Speaker 1: sasan is a super deadly poison in its pure form,
Speaker 1: which is why most hot sauces only contained trace amounts
Speaker 1: of the substance. And still, if you consumed enough hot sauce,
Speaker 1: it could definitely do some damage. For example, there was
Speaker 1: this one study that concluded that a person of average
Speaker 1: weight would have to ingest nearly half a gallon of
Speaker 1: Tabasco sauce to overdose and pass out. So of course
Speaker 1: it would take a lot more than that to actually
Speaker 1: kill you, but it's totally possible in theory. You know, mango,
Speaker 1: you can actually die from drinking too much water. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I feel like maybe I should share
Speaker 1: this story, but if you remember when we were in college,
Speaker 1: we were sitting around on one of the quads the air,
Speaker 1: and this reporter came up and there had unfortunately been
Speaker 1: a death from somebody who had, you know, had way
Speaker 1: too much alcohol one night, and so obviously that's a
Speaker 1: very serious story. But we're all just looking to sit
Speaker 1: around and have a good time outside and suddenly there
Speaker 1: was a reporter wanting to ask us all these questions,
Speaker 1: and she asked the question, did you know you can
Speaker 1: die from drinking too much alcohol? I said, you can
Speaker 1: die from drinking too much water. And so the very
Speaker 1: next day this one story, the only time I was
Speaker 1: ever quoted in the local newspaper was Will Pearson reports,
Speaker 1: you can die from drinking too much water. So it
Speaker 1: is a fact. That was one of our first facts.
Speaker 1: So having that much hot sauce in your bag maybe
Speaker 1: isn't the greatest idea. And and actually, you know, the
Speaker 1: gym is another place where hot sauce won't do you
Speaker 1: any favors. Speaking of other myths, it always heard that
Speaker 1: spicy foods can help boost your metabolism. The idea there
Speaker 1: is that when your body gets all hot and sweaty
Speaker 1: while eating spicy foods, that it must be burning calories
Speaker 1: in the process, you know, since that's what happens when
Speaker 1: you exercise. But suddenly that's not the case with capsationan
Speaker 1: Studies have shown that any increase in metabolic rate broad
Speaker 1: on buy spicy foods is statistically negligible. So, in other words,
Speaker 1: the thousand calories you get from an over stuffed burrito,
Speaker 1: you can't really undo that by just putting a lot
Speaker 1: of hot sauce on it. Well, since you just took
Speaker 1: a potential benefit of spicy foods off the table, I'm
Speaker 1: going to even things out and do the same thing
Speaker 1: with one of its potential harms. So you've probably heard
Speaker 1: that rumor that too much spice can do permanent harm
Speaker 1: to your taste buds, and I mean it doesn't sound
Speaker 1: too crazy on paper, right, Like kept satan can lead
Speaker 1: to such an overwhelming mouth burn that it can be
Speaker 1: tough to taste anything else for a while, which might
Speaker 1: make you think that your taste buds are well and
Speaker 1: truly busted. But the good news is that kept satan
Speaker 1: doesn't damage your taste buds tissue at all. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: was actually gonna say, you know, much like hair, taste
Speaker 1: buds are constantly being replaced, so the idea of doing
Speaker 1: permanent damage to them it doesn't really make much sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, eating hot foods and I'm talking temperature here
Speaker 1: and not spiciness can kill taste buds, but like you said,
Speaker 1: those are replaced pretty often, so even that wouldn't be permanent.
Speaker 1: And when it comes to capt sation, there's really no
Speaker 1: risk at all because, like we've been saying, the chemical
Speaker 1: interacts with their heat sensing receptors, not our taste buds.
Speaker 1: So even if your tongue feels numb after eating something spicy,
Speaker 1: your taste buds are totally fine. All right. Well, now
Speaker 1: that we've covered some things that spicy foods can't do
Speaker 1: to your body, I do quickly want to go over
Speaker 1: some of the things that actually they can do. So
Speaker 1: for starters, spicy foods like curries, hot sauce and with
Speaker 1: sabi absolutely can make your nose run. And the reason
Speaker 1: why comes down to the natural irritants those foods contain.
Speaker 1: So in the case of chili peppers, that would be captation. Now,
Speaker 1: when the chemicals come in contact with your mucus membranes,
Speaker 1: the membranes get inflamed and switched into defense mode. And
Speaker 1: this is where things get runny, because those membranes start
Speaker 1: producing mucus in order to trap any irritants that might
Speaker 1: be floating around unchecked. Then any captured intruders are drained
Speaker 1: out through the nasal passage. So that really is sound
Speaker 1: advised to, you know, eat hot soup or something when
Speaker 1: you want to clear out your sinuses. Actually I always
Speaker 1: been told that, but really I have learned more recently
Speaker 1: that that's not the case, because while eating something spicy
Speaker 1: can provide temporary relief for stuff he knows in the
Speaker 1: long run, this may actually cause more harm than good.
Speaker 1: So if you think about, the chemicals I mentioned can
Speaker 1: also irritate the muscles in your nose, and that causes
Speaker 1: them to let in more air than they normally would.
Speaker 1: And when this happens, the receptors in the nose inform
Speaker 1: the brain that you're breathing much easier. So the net
Speaker 1: result is that you think the hot souper whatever worked
Speaker 1: its magic, but in reality, you've just fallen for yet
Speaker 1: another one of capsuations chemical tricks. Now, once the heat
Speaker 1: wears off, your nose muscles contract again and you're back
Speaker 1: to feeling all stuffed up, except now you've got a
Speaker 1: bunch of extra snot on top of everything else, and
Speaker 1: it actually leaves you worse off than you were before.
Speaker 1: How crazy, I've never heard that before. So, being of
Speaker 1: spicy rigans that do a number on your insides, do
Speaker 1: you know something similar happens in our intestine when we
Speaker 1: eat spicy foods. You might remember from the Flavor episode
Speaker 1: that we don't just have taste buds in our mouths,
Speaker 1: but all throughout our bodies, including in our colon and
Speaker 1: intestines and when these intestinal buds, since the inflammatory chemicals
Speaker 1: we've been talking about, they really a message to the
Speaker 1: brain telling it to get these airton's out of the body.
Speaker 1: A s, A p wow. So this is why spicy
Speaker 1: foods can make some people nauseous or or even send
Speaker 1: them running the bathroom. Exactly so the brain responds to
Speaker 1: the threat by speeding up bowel movements, and if you
Speaker 1: eat something especially spicy, your body basically goes to death.
Speaker 1: Con one for examtly, I read this case study about
Speaker 1: a guy who ate a bunch of ghost peppers at
Speaker 1: an eating contest, and he actually threw up so hard
Speaker 1: as a result, he actually tore a hole in his esophage.
Speaker 1: Was the guy? Okay? He was? And thankfully he got
Speaker 1: treatment fast enough to prevent what otherwise could have been
Speaker 1: a pretty nasty death. I'm guessing he'll lay off the
Speaker 1: ghost peppers from now on too. But that's not like
Speaker 1: Tristan over here has been dominating his spread of spicy
Speaker 1: foods for what like half an hour. Now. I don't
Speaker 1: know what's going on with this guy, but that intestinal
Speaker 1: irritation should have kicked in by now. What do you think? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I I think he's got a stomach of steel.
Speaker 1: But it's only a matter of time at this point.
Speaker 1: All right, well we better work quick. So what do
Speaker 1: you say we get to the fact off Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you realize this, but our offices
Speaker 1: sit in the second spiciest city in America, and these
Speaker 1: are the cities where people most commonly order spicy foods
Speaker 1: at restaurants. This is according to grub Hub. Charlotte actually
Speaker 1: takes the crown at number one, and it's followed by Atlanta,
Speaker 1: then Austin, Dallas, and then San Francisco. Okay, so, given
Speaker 1: your love of spice and the ability to look as
Speaker 1: cool as a cucumber when you eat spicy foods, I've
Speaker 1: got a place for you to visit. So have you
Speaker 1: ever been to the Brick Lane curry House in New York?
Speaker 1: So they have this ridiculously hot curry and they put
Speaker 1: customers up to the challenge to see who can finish
Speaker 1: the dish that it served him. It's actually so hot
Speaker 1: that the chef wears a gas mask as he prepares it.
Speaker 1: But if you finish it, you'll get a free beer,
Speaker 1: a picture on their website, and it's certificate showing you've
Speaker 1: done it, a certificate mango. Well that sounds nice, but
Speaker 1: I'm actually going for a bigger prize. And that's why
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to take on the Inferno Soup
Speaker 1: Challenge at Nitaly's Time mex Cuisine in St. Petersburg, Florida,
Speaker 1: and the soup has noodles and chicken and a bunch
Speaker 1: of vegetables, but it also has crushed ghost peppers and
Speaker 1: lots of other peppers. To try it out, you actually
Speaker 1: have to be over eighteen. You have to be of
Speaker 1: sound mind and health, and of course sober. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't until two twelve that someone finally managed to finish
Speaker 1: off a bowl and they won undred bucks as a result.
Speaker 1: That is a lot of money, but I can't imagine
Speaker 1: that it's worth it for the pain that that must
Speaker 1: go at all. So I was actually laughing about this.
Speaker 1: I was reading about how many Mexicans are often puzzled
Speaker 1: by how Americans basically guzzle sauce. I mean, we love
Speaker 1: it that much. It was a great quote from a
Speaker 1: chef that was interviewed by The New York Times. He's
Speaker 1: based in Mexico, and he said, watching someone shovel in
Speaker 1: sausa with tortilla chips is strange to Mexicans, like how
Speaker 1: an American would feel watching someone drink sal addressing out
Speaker 1: of a bottle. So speaking himself. So, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if you remember this, but back in the U s
Speaker 1: DA officially declared salsa vegetable and this allowed schools to
Speaker 1: start serving it more and and this of course irked
Speaker 1: ketchup makers because they had tried and failed to get
Speaker 1: the same designation years before. This does make me feel
Speaker 1: a little bit better about all of our salza consumption
Speaker 1: when we go to Mexican restaurants and you find of
Speaker 1: frightening how much we eat when we're there. But yeah,
Speaker 1: now we're eating a lot of vegetables. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: this means we're super healthy eaters. The five tortilla chips
Speaker 1: are are good for you to write, let's go with Yes,
Speaker 1: we'll do it an episode on that on a later date.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to declare you the winner of today's
Speaker 1: fact off. Congratulations Mango, Thanks so much well, and thank
Speaker 1: you guys for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time
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Speaker 1: Jason who