WEBVTT - The Necessary Spice 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.399 Works dot com. Hey, you're welcome to stuff to Blow 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.200 your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:21.840 what's your relationship with spice? I'm really sensitive to it? Yeah, 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:26.000 can you prefer sort of the blender taste, the blender 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.240 cuisine or no. I don't like bland cuisine. But I 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.240 can't take, like, you know, up the little the menus 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:35.800 with like the one mild chili pepper and two I 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:37.600 just feel like I'm so sensitive to it if I 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.960 can can't really go beyond that one mild pepper. I 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:45.000 like some spice, but but I agree there's there's a 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:47.280 limit for me because in my experience, just among the 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:50.480 people I know, they're there seem to be essentially three 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:53.720 types of individuals. So that the people who just are 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.720 really adverse to spices and just really don't want anything 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:59.520 messing with their their palate spice wise, and then they're 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:02.680 they're be like me who have a little adventurous with 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:06.120 the spice um. And then there are the the the individuals. 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.560 And I seem to think Jonathan Strickland are coworker is 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:12.880 one of these who will just go for the throat, like, 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.319 just show me something just really spicy. I want to 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.360 try the hottest spice imaginable. If you have a hot 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.280 sauce that is new and dangerous, let me try it out. 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.240 And um, yeah, I just can't go for that because 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:28.160 it just ends up tasting like pain. Well what I 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:31.039 noticed too, And maybe this is just something that my 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.319 my gingered husband, ginger headed husband does, like a redhead thing. 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:39.880 But he will break out in the sweats and he 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.319 gets really eu for it to he liked the spice 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:47.080 or loves it. Okay. See I've seen that before with 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.040 with people I know who are crazy into the spice. 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.600 They have this intense, bodily reaction to it, where so 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:54.040 you you're like, why do you love it so much? 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:57.920 Because you look like you were just maced? Yeah, exactly 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.760 or pepper spray? Right? Which is that gets down to? 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.160 And one of the key ideas that we're talking about 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.360 in this episode is that the spices are chemical weapons 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.680 that we've we've hijacked and manipulated and used for for 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:16.959 other purposes. Indeed, and spices have have really taken quite 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:19.200 the position, I guess you could say over the last 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.800 four hundred years, and we sort of take it for granted. Now, 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:23.600 if you want some nutmeg, you just take it out 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.320 of your cupboard, right and just spread it on your food. 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:30.640 But four centuries ago, the only nutmeg trees to be 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.200 found fringed Run Island in the Band of Sea, which 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.680 is now what we know of as Eastern Indonesia. And 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:42.840 the Dutch they so badly wanted to secure those nutmeg 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:46.320 trees that they killed off like a good amount of people, 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.200 just like genocide for these nutmeg trees. And we forget this, 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:54.280 we forget that this these the spice trade really shaped 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:59.000 empires and um some some are built and destroyed on spices. 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:01.320 It's amazing, Yeah, I mean it's it's kind of difficult 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:03.960 to overstate the importance of spices in in human history 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.680 and the establishment of trade routes. Uh and also just 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:09.600 in cultural identity of of of a place. You think 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.400 of any any particular part of the world us to 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.079 think about their cuisine, you end up thinking about their spices, 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:18.400 both indigenous spices and spices that ended up coming from 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:22.520 outside sources and ended up becoming a part of of 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.120 their identity. I mean, for instance, you look at the 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:27.880 at Thai cuisine, like they are elements of Thai cuisine 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:31.480 that that obviously we are are ingrained within the culture 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.080 prior to outside interference. But then there are there are 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.720 elements that that came through via the Portuguese and those 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.400 just become a part of the national culinary identity. And 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.600 that identity was something that we've been adding to over 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:49.280 and over again only because as hunter gatherers, as people 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:54.680 who could become agriculturally minded and really master fire, we 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.880 could begin to concentrate on how we would cooke our 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.720 food and how we would flavor are our food. You know, 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:03.400 I want to I do want to preface and say 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.360 that when it comes to understanding the history of of 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:10.640 humans and spice, UM, it's difficult to to develop a 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.320 you know, really definitive answers. It's one of those things 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:15.560 that's ultimately kind of lost to prehistory. We have some 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.520 of archaeological evidence that will get into UH, but but 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.280 there are a few different ways of looking at this now. UM, 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:23.840 if you travel back in time, though, you go back 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.080 around ten thousand years, you UH, and you go past 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.920 that point, you will find an age before the agricultural revolution. 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:32.840 To your point, this is a this is when we 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.000 were hunter gatherers. Right, as a Harold McGee points out 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.680 in on Food and Cooking, U we've benefited from a 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:44.000 quote unquote diverse yet chancey diet, so you never knew 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:46.200 what your next meal might consist of. It might be 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.080 dandelion leaves in a squirrel, it might be nuts and berries. 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:51.560 A lot of different stuff was coming in, but there 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.800 was there was no dependency there um. But then we 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.200 learned to grow, we learned to cultivate. We uh, we 0:04:57.279 --> 0:04:59.840 settled down to an agrarian lifestyle in the same way 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.440 h that an unruly bachelor or bachelorette might, if the 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:08.240 spirit moved them, eventually settle into monogamous relationship. They trade 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:13.120 variety and adventure for dependability. So we turned to the 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:17.520 concentrated energy and protein of rice, sweet corn, and barley. 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:19.800 But just as it was dependable, it was also kind 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:23.159 of boring. Right. The flavors were few and predictable, but 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:25.760 we still had a nose and a sense of taste 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.719 that evolved for the wild and uh, for the hunting 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.880 and gathering. We had not changed into a different organism, 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.400 even though we had found a new way to obtain 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.520 these vital nutrients. Uh, but we didn't want to return 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:39.640 to that old lifestyle, right, I mean, we didn't want 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:41.840 to just become hunter gatherers again. But we wanted to 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.400 spice things up. We needed to provide stimulation. We wanted 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:48.039 to provide play in our food, and so herbs and 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.279 spices made that possible. We could make bland foods more 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:54.440 flavorable again even varied. And this is very much the 0:05:55.000 --> 0:06:00.000 luxury of an agrarian society, right because if you have uh, 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.920 my food source that is predictable or fairly so, then 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.480 you have a little bit more leisure time on your hands, 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:09.800 or even just time to focus on what you're eating 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:13.120 and what it's tasting like, as opposed to just putting 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.640 something in your mouth. Yeah, it becomes less about and 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.400 I must find something today, be at squirrel or dandelion 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:20.760 and more like, well, it's going to be corn again, 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.960 because that's all there is right now. But but what 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.599 can I do to it? Could I perhaps add some 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:30.400 dandelion or squirrel to that corn and sweeten the deal? 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.760 So we don't have that that one piece of information 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.600 that says ah, and that is here's the year when 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:40.240 humans began using spices. Right, all we can do is 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:45.920 look at anthropology and try to in some some bits 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:49.680 of archaeology and try to piece together when humans began 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.640 to really use spices in earnest. Yeah, and you know, 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:55.039 some of the evidence so we're about to look at here, uh, 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.080 you know, shows that that maybe we were even using 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.680 spices to varying degrees before we settled down into that 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.480 agrarian lifestyle. Because obviously, if you're a hunter gather, you're 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:06.880 going around, you're trying different things, You're discovering maybe that 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:11.000 some things are rather difficult to to to consume on 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:14.800 their own, but if but if combined with another element, uh, 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.600 they might become a little more palatable. According to a 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:21.040 two thousand thirteen study published in the journal Plos One, 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:25.560 ancient European hunter gatherers were using garlic mustard seeds to 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.040 give their foods a peppery kick as far back as 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.560 six thousand years ago. University of York archaeologist Oliver Craig 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:35.240 and his team discovered microscop expects of plant based cilia 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.400 on fire scorched pottery shards collected from three camp sites 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:43.320 in north central Europe. Now, the evidence data back between 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:46.360 five thousand, eight hundred and six thousand, one hundred and 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.680 fifty years ago uh the garlic mustard plant also known 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:52.280 as jack by the hedge. This would have been a pungent, 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:56.960 peppery tasting black seed, but but it has no nutritional value. 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.480 So clearly this is something you would you would only 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.200 add if you wanted to toy with the flavor of 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.320 a thing. So in this particular study, the researchers argue 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:09.200 that their evidence quote suggests a much greater antiquity to 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.640 the spicing of foods than is evident in the macro 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.560 fossil record, and challenges the view that plants were exploited 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.760 by hunter gatherers and early agriculture solely for energy requirements 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:23.920 rather than for taste. That's worth noting that this was 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:27.720 a locally available spice, and it's uncertain if the practice 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:31.120 of using it is derived from contact with Old World farmers, 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.600 people who are already engaged in in the in the 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.840 agrarian lifestyle style in the New East, or they developed 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:39.440 it locally. So the bottom line here is that our 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.520 hunter gatherer ways paved the way for spice, We have 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.959 the nose for it, and in all likelihood are wandering 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.000 ways gave us all the knowledge we needed to ultimately 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:52.240 make that uh that BC spice pumpkin latte that we 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.040 all craved, what was the residue was found on the 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.680 proper right, Yes, Yeah, Now what's really important about that 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.320 is that the residue is found in the crockery there, 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:04.600 so that gives us a really good hints like, hey, 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.800 this was probably used in the actual cooking. Now. Dr 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.360 Hailey Saul, who led the study from the University of 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:15.520 York UM which looked at that crockery, said that there's 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.160 a cave in Israel where coriander has been found and 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:21.960 that's dated to around twenty three thousand years ago. But 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.360 you can't with certainty look at that coriander and say 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:27.720 it was used in cooking because there's no evidence to 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.720 support that it could have been used as some sort 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:35.080 of medicinal um material, or it could have been used 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:38.679 in cooking or for even decoration. Yeah, because central to 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.400 this is just the the idea that as we were 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:45.760 going around hunting and gathering, trying different things, discovering the 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.280 properties of different plants. Uh we we we ended up 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:51.960 cataloging them at least as part of our our oral history. 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.400 We knew what things you should not eat because they 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.040 would kill you. We learned what things were good eats, 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:00.120 and then we uh initially, and then we eventually learned 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.679 what things could be combined in small amounts to adjust 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:08.720 the flavor or perhaps uh service some sort of early medicine. Indeed, 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.200 and in the process we've kind of figured out what 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.320 exactly constitutes a spice in the first place. Indeed, yeah, 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:18.680 what are we talking about when we talk about a spice. Well, 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:23.640 spice is a culinary term. It's not a botanical category, 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.280 and it does not refer to a specific kind of 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:30.560 plant or plant part. Spices come from various woody shrubs 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:35.560 and vines, trees, roots, seeds, fruits, flowers, you name it. 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:40.240 Um cookbooks generally distinguished between seasonings. Those are spices used 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:43.880 in food preparation and condiments. Those are spices added after 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:48.440 food is served. But they cannot just differentiate between herbs 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:51.000 and spices. But when you get down to it, um 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:55.800 herbs are defined botanically as plants that they don't develop woody, 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.040 persistent tissue, and they're usually called in uh as a 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.720 as a fresh and greedy it, whereas spices are usually 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:05.839 dried in a little bottle, etcetera. Right, and spices are 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:10.320 unique in that they have a certain physical response to 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:12.920 the human body and when you eat them. There are 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:16.079 compounds and spicy foods that activate since ra neurons called 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.920 polymodal no susceptors, which are found all over the body 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.560 but also inside your mouth and your nose. So these 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.520 same receptors are activated by extreme heat. That's why if 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.280 you chomp down on, saye like a Scotch bonnet, your 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.280 brain screams fire right in your body follows suit, and 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.400 then you begin to sweat and your heart starts to 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.400 beat faster and faster. And in a sense, this is 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.160 that flight or flight reaction that we have heard so 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:47.480 much about. UM. That is what is so unique about 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:51.040 spices that it's got those compounds. Now, not all of 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.560 these spices are created equal, especially when you're looking at 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:57.719 different kinds of chili peppers. UM. The difference lies in 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.319 the type of compounds and the cat sasan Now, the 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:04.320 cap station and black pepper and chili pepper are made 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:09.120 up of larger, heavier molecules called alkhal amides, which mostly 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.240 stay in your mouth. But if you have something like mustard, 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:14.920 horse rush or what sabby. This is a good example. 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:19.480 Uh you those are smaller compounds and uh those are 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.240 called diosinates, and they can float up into the sinuses. 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.080 And that is why if you take like some sort 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:30.040 of wassaby encrusted, I know, a soy nut or something, 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:32.560 pop it in your mouth, just feels like your nose 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:34.360 is on fire. Oh yeah, I mean that's one of 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:37.560 the things I love about about sushi is when you 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:40.600 have some of the sabby with the sushi and then 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:43.280 you accidentally use a little too much and it comes 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.719 as a surprise and then because suddenly you it's up 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.600 in your sinuses and it almost just locks down your 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.679 system for a second, and maybe even for half a second, 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.640 you think, oh, I think I'm gonna die, uh something, 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:58.920 something bad has happened to my body. And then you 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.319 kind of come down for that the high of that spice. 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:02.880 And we'll talk a little bit more about the high 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:05.000 that spice in a moment, but we should mention the 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:09.560 Skullville scale. Probably have heard that before when you've looked 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:14.880 at tabasco sauces or competitions. This measures how much kapacation 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.640 content can be deluded before the heat can no longer 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:21.840 be detected by the human tongue. Um So green peppers 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:26.160 they get a zero units on the Skullville scale. Tabasco 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:32.760 sauce gets about twelve hundred hundred Scoville units, and two 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:38.960 of the hottest peppers Trinidad Maruga scorpion and Carolina reaper. 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:43.040 Does sound pretty intense, right, terrifying. They come in at 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:48.000 one point five million to two million scoville units. Now 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:53.760 that's half as potent as actual like pepper spray, which 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.360 is about three to four million. Well, hey, we're gonna 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:57.960 take a quick break and when we come back, we 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.079 will get into some more on the subject of spices, 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:11.000 including why plants produce spice. To begin with, all right, 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:14.480 we're back, so why do plants want to kill us? Well, 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.720 I mean, that's that's kind of the idea here. I mean, 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.520 it's the quote from Harold McGee that he he often 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:24.960 throws out is that flavorings are chemical weapons. But we've 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:27.600 we've learned to hijack them. We were talking about the 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:29.960 Scoville scale, and that's really key to all of this 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.920 because generally with spices, a little always goes a long way. 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:35.280 You try eating any kind of a raw spice or 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.600 or herb, and you generally find the flavor of it 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:44.760 extremely overpowering. You know, a reagano vanilla being nutmeg. Most 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:47.000 of this stuff, if you're just taking it straight up, 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.120 it's gonna be it's gonna be irritating, it's gonna be numbing, 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:54.360 it's going to make you physically ill. Because these are 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.480 defensive aspects of the plant. This is the plant trying 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.720 to tell other organisms and also um not only just 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:06.080 a plan eating organisms, but even you know bacteria saying 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:08.720 do not eat me. I am dangerous if you if 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:10.760 you if you bite of me, even if you smell 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.960 of me too much, it's going to hurt. But humans, 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:16.960 uh have learned over time that well, I can take 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:19.960 a little bit of the the harmful substance and if 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.080 I elude it, if I can, I can actually turn 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.360 it into a form that I can consume. So in 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:28.920 other words, for the plants, it's a kind of self 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:33.680 producing pesticide for itself to protect itself. And we large 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:37.720 organisms come along and we we rip off, cutch upon it, 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.680 use a little bit usually and uh, we're not going 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.120 to die from it, right. Yeah. Just to call back 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:46.960 to our episode of nutmeg. If you swallow about two 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.720 tablespoons of ground nuntain meg, and you most certainly should 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:55.800 not um, you could suffer hallucinations, nausea, heart palpitations, rapid heartbeat, 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.640 rushing blood, the feeling that you're going to die. At 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:01.160 least one death has been report did. And that's just nutmeg. 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:03.880 You can buy it off the shelf at the local store. Uh, 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.360 it's in your maybe in your cabinet right now. And 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:07.600 and this is kind of a case with it with 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:09.560 a with a number of spices. It's just about any spice. 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:11.240 If you take enough of it, you're going to get stick. 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.640 It's it's going to have a dire effect on your body, 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.120 which makes you wonder why do we consume these in 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.120 the first place? Right, I mean, indeed, you you sort 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:21.920 of put yourself in the head of the our ancient 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.720 hunter gatherer ancestors and try to imagine them, you know, 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.000 sampling a pepper for the first time and just you know, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.760 falling over and gagging and then and instead of thinking 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:34.240 I'll never touch that again, they think, I bet I 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:37.080 could do something with that. You know, it's just the 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:41.240 the the early chemist, uh. In human civilization, who said, 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.320 there's there's something potent there, and maybe I can use 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.280 that potency to my advantage. Well, especially if you look 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.240 at food as a kind of medicine, right, because we 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:55.760 know here that it can have antimicrobial properties. This is 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:59.440 from John Broach writing for National Geographic. He says Paul Sherman, 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:02.480 her fessor of neurobiology and behavior at Cornell You Never 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:06.160 See in Ithaca, New York, says that his research shows 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:09.360 that people in warmer regions of the world benefit from 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:13.840 eating spicier foods because spices are natural anti microbials. So 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:19.640 you have more food borne pathogens and parasites in warmer climates. 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:24.120 So in this sense, spices can kill or inhibit their growth. Yeah. 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:25.800 I mean, the basic idea here is you're in a 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.040 you're in this hotter climate, there's a there's a richer 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:33.679 microbial world trying to kill you potentially, and so you 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:35.960 have taken the chemical weapons of a plant and are 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.560 using that to defend your food from those attackers. Yeah. 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.440 John Rich says that when people in a country like Thailand, 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.679 for instance, eat a spicy meal, they are much less 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.439 likely to spend the next day with about of diarrhea 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.399 than people in that region who eat bland foods, so 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.000 there's definitely an advantage to eating the spicier foods. And 0:17:56.080 --> 0:18:00.119 for Paul Sherman's part, to prove his hypothesis about the 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.360 climate dependent evolution of spicy foods, he and his colleagues 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.359 compared recipes for more than four thousand meat dishes and 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.920 one thousand vegetarian dishes among thirties six countries. As predicted, 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:15.600 countries with the warmest climates have the spiciest food and 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:19.280 particularly with those meat dishes, you see uh much more 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:22.399 higher levels of spice being used in those. Yeah, I mean, 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.119 I instantly think of Thai cooking because with with Thai cooking, 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.560 obviously you have a hot environment, you have a lot 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.000 of spices thrown into the meat. And additionally, the meat 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:32.320 is cooked at generally at a really high temperature to 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:34.840 boot um, which is you know, one of the reasons 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:38.680 that it's often advised that you're you're generally okay with 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:40.720 with any kind of street food in Thailand if you 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:42.359 you know, if you see it cooked before you because 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:44.199 the temperature is high, and then you have the spices 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.560 in there as well. Yeah, again, you've got meat and 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.320 a hot climate, which equals more pathogens, more parasites, So 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:52.359 pour on the spices. Yeah, if you look at all 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:56.280 this from a Darwinian standpoint, you can see how that 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.560 kind of culinary tradition, those who hold that up, those 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:01.359 are going to be the survivors. Right. So that's kind 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:04.000 of the evolutionary model here. Those who enjoyed the spice, 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:05.920 those who enjoy the style of cooking, those are the 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.760 people that survived in these in these environments. Now that's 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:14.320 not to say there are not alternative hypotheses to consider. Um. 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:19.680 One alternative hypothesis is, uh, is is that simply hot climates, 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:23.280 you see a preference for spicy foods because these increase 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:27.439 perspiration and help cool the body. And we already know that, right, 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:31.000 your body is interpreting this as heat. Right, So again 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.119 think to our think to that to your husband, to 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:37.240 anybody you know who's who's into too eating the spicy 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.840 food and then sweating profusely. Uh. The sweat is of 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:42.480 course cooling their body. So you could argue that when 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.880 they when they when they have something really spicy, they're 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:51.080 simply tinkering with their bodies cooling system. Another idea here, 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:55.040 another hypothesis is that spices uh merely signify wealth and 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:57.800 social status. And this gets into against one of what 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:02.159 we discussed about the way that spices have influenced world 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:06.159 politics and and certainly the trade around the world. Uh. 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:09.600 Spices become uh something of a of a of a 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:13.280 status symbol, something of a of a luxury, and therefore, 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.440 having a lot of spices at your disposal, being able 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.639 to eat well spiced food is simply living the highlight. 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.120 I think it indicates skill level too. Oh indeed, yeah, yeah, 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.000 you could easily see that being something that plays into 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:33.040 mate selection, right another chefs out they're just nodding your head. Yeah, yeah. 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:35.640 And I say that as someone who screwed up making 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.240 macaroni and cheese over the weekend. Yeah, I accidentally put 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.719 the cheese and the and the milk into the boiling 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:46.119 water with the noodles. Was quite embarrassing. You were just 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.960 distracted that it was just me and the boy and 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:51.560 the cat, and the boy and the cat were both 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:53.320 in the kitchen with me trying to tell me things 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.159 at the same time. But you know, I just ended up. 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:58.440 It just ended up being buttered noodles, and the child 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:01.040 loved it so and as we have already mentioned before 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:03.840 in our research that cats can mimic that kind of 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:09.000 um infant like cry, like they can gain that. So 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:11.960 when you hear your your cat whining for food, and 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:13.720 my cat does it all the time, it just puts 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:18.600 me on needles, especially when my kid is yeah, going 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.920 at me. So here you okay. Well, another alternate hypothesis 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:26.000 to consider is it the health benefits of spice a 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:33.480 digestion modulate energy, metabolism and even help postpone some degenerative diseases. 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:36.320 And UH, indeed, there are a number of examples we 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:39.480 can call out to. UH, They've just been countless studies 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.000 over the years and continue to be more and more 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:45.399 studies about different spices what their health benefits happened to be. 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:47.840 And we're certainly not going to go through all of those. Uh. 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:50.160 If you go back to our nutmeg episode, we discussed 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.880 nutmaga bit. But just to highlight a couple here, vanilla, 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.280 UH has There's been numerous studies that have demonstrated that 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:01.640 vanilla in the major component of vanilla as anti carcinogenic 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:06.199 properties UM. In studies at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, a 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:10.960 vanilla derived drug on mice was able to significantly reduce 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:15.080 the percentage of sickled cells h and human studies are 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:16.720 apparently in the work on that. If you look to 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:20.399 black pepper, just straight up black pepper well. UM. In 0:22:20.480 --> 0:22:23.440 a study in the Journal of the American College and Nutrition, 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:27.000 gastro intellol interologists found that one point five gramds of 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:29.879 black pepper uh sped up the time it takes for 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:32.359