Why do we like spicy food?

Most of the peppers we talk about now come from five cultivated species under the Solanaceae family and the genus Capsicum, among which Capsicum annuum is the most common.

The long, curved pointed peppers, the slightly shorter chili peppers, and the large, almost non-spicy green peppers that we are familiar with are all cultivated varieties of this species.

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Another common type of pepper is Capsicum frutescens, also known as "small pepper". It grows on relatively low shrubs. The peppers with small pointed heads are cute and exquisite. Not only are they edible, they are also a popular variety in gardening.

Where is the hottest pepper?

In fact, contrary to our intuition, the seeds of chili peppers are not spicy, and the skin is not that spicy either.

The spiciness comes from the white sac inside the skin, which usually extends vertically from the handle and the skin of the pepper. Scrape it off and the spiciness will be reduced by half.

For non-spicy green peppers, scraping off this part can also improve the bitter taste of the peppers.

In fact, this part of the pepper is there to protect the seeds inside from being eaten by the wrong animals.

Birds are not afraid of spicy food, and peppers themselves hope that birds will eat more. Anyway, what cannot be digested will be excreted, and the seeds will be spread as the birds fly far away.

However, those annoying mammals always eat the fruits without knowing the time, and even the seeds are eaten before they are ripe. How can this be acceptable?

Thus, capsaicin evolved as a defense mechanism against mammalian gnawing.

However, Chili never expected that several species of mammals would fall in love with this stimulating feeling.

One of them is called the shrew, which is an expert at eating spicy food. Years of evolutionary selection have made it not worry about the spiciness of food at all; the other is a hairless ape - well, humans.

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Of course humans can taste the spiciness of food, but they are very "masochistic" and have fallen in love with this stimulation.

The genetic origins of peppers are very diverse, but they all originated in the New World, where several species were domesticated by early settlers in tropical regions from Central to South America.

Capsicum annuum comes from Central America, while Capsicum chinense (another species, also known as the yellow lantern pepper. Although it has the word "china" in its name, it is not native to China) originated in the northern Amazon.

The Andes also domesticated their own chili peppers, though they are less common today.

The latest scientific research supports that the earliest evidence of pepper domestication was found in southwestern Ecuador, dating back 6,000 years, making it the earliest domesticated crop by humans in the New World.

What really makes chili pepper legendary is its footsteps from the New World to the Old World, and people's "masochistic" yet irresistible love for it.

In 1493, Columbus, who crossed the Atlantic for the second time, and the doctor on board brought this plant that grew "like a rose bush" back to Spain.

Peppers are not a particularly fussy plant when it comes to where they grow—whether for decoration or seasoning, people (and birds) have begun to spread them on their own.

Merchant ships from Iberia brought it to the coast of Guangdong and Fujian in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and then it landed in Asia and spread inland; Ottoman and Arab merchants also introduced chili peppers to Germany through Hungary via the Eastern European trade routes.

The word chilli in English is said to come from an indigenous language in Mexico, and it sounds like a playful contrast to the "cold" chilli - chili peppers are actually something that creates a burning sensation;

People around the world quickly associated this plant with words such as spice and heat in their culture and language, and derived a variety of names:

paprika, pepperoni, jalapeno, tabasco, "tang xinzi" and many more...

In China, people initially used this "sweet pepper" only as an ornamental plant or medicine, but as it was cultivated on a large scale, people discovered that the food seasoned with it really had a unique flavor.

Guizhou and its neighboring areas were the first to start eating chili peppers. In Guizhou, where salt was scarce, the Miao people used it as a substitute for salt. During the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, Sichuan, Hunan, Yunnan and other areas also began to eat chili peppers.

By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the spicy dishes we are familiar with today had already entered the classic recipes of Sichuan cuisine, and the Sichuan cuisine's habit of eating spicy food with chili peppers splashed in oil was also formed at this time.

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From dried chili peppers, chili powder, chili oil, chili sauce, to paste chili peppers, pickled chili peppers, and glutinous chili peppers, they are blended into red oil flavor, spicy flavor, sour and spicy flavor, paste and spicy flavor, fish flavor, and strange flavor...

Starting from a small chili pepper, such a rich taste has been derived.

Since it was transmitted from the sea, why don’t people in Fujian and Guangzhou eat spicy food, but people in inland Sichuan, Guizhou and Hunan love spicy food?

This question may still be troubling all kinds of people today - why do we choose to eat spicy food? Is it determined by genes or the environment?

Is chili delicious? Of course it is. Chili can stimulate the oral mucosa, increase saliva secretion and amylase activity.

In hot and humid places, people often lose their appetite. Chili peppers can stimulate and whet the appetite.

Capsaicin has a significant inhibitory effect on Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis, so it is also favored in humid areas. In the past when food storage methods were not in place, the ability to kill bacteria was also a very important quality.

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What chili pepper brings us is not actually taste, but a tingling and burning sensation.

Capsaicin (also known as capsaicin) contained in peppers acts on the pain nerve pathways in the mouth. This burning sensation will cause the brain to have a false concept of body injury and begin to release the body's own pain-killing substances - endorphins. Therefore, eating spicy food is indeed a "stimulating" experience, and even produces a euphoric feeling. (By the way, the correct formula for relieving spiciness is dairy products - the casein in it can bind capsaicin, thereby reducing irritation to the mouth)

What kind of people like spicy food? Paul Rozin, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, once did a study in Mexico.

He discovered that the trait of eating spicy food is actually acquired.

In a family that eats spicy food, children are exposed to spicy food from an early age, which can help them develop tolerance to chili peppers.

However, even so, people's sensitivity and preference for capsaicin vary from person to person.

People who like to pursue excitement often prefer spicy food - they get pleasure through a kind of "benign self-abuse", just like riding a roller coaster.

In fact, people had already begun looking for spicy food before chili peppers were introduced.

As early as 1,600 years ago, the "Huayang Guozhi" of the Jin Dynasty recorded that the Shu people "liked spicy food". In China, people used ginger, pepper, cornel, etc.

Today, Sichuan peppercorns have been squeezed into a corner of Sichuan by the more pungent chili peppers, forming a special spicy flavor.

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Even though the Sichuan region has experienced population shrinkage, large-scale immigration processes such as people from Huguang moving to Sichuan, the culture and habit of eating spicy food (or loving spicy food) has been maintained to this day.

Does this mean that people in Sichuan and Hunan are naturally fond of excitement? It is possible that the people in Sichuan and Hunan are also bold in love and hate, and bold in action and responsibility.

Now, it becomes “spicy girls are spicy”, forming a distinct regional characteristic.

However, for me, eating spicy food is still a daunting task. I don’t have a hot temper, and I don’t have a high need for excitement. The reason I like spicy food is probably not because of the spiciness itself, but the memory of my hometown food that comes with the spicy taste.

Twice-cooked pork is not twice-cooked pork without fermented bean curd, spicy chicken is not spicy chicken if it is not scooped out from a mountain of dried chilies, and boiled fish is not boiled fish if it is not soaked in boiling red oil.

Author: Li Zi

Review | Chen Ran Associate Research Librarian (Science Communication) Senior Engineer, COFCO Nutrition and Health Research Institute

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