Chilies, why do we eat them?

[Ashoka]

I am looking for scientific articles, theories and personal views on why humans ingest chili peppers. One of my friends is currently writing a book about horror fiction and he sees a link between eating chilies (and getting your mouth burned) and getting scared by a good horror novel. It is a phenomenon called benign masochism. Do you agree that this could be the part of explanation or is there more to it? Personally I find the taste of chilies lovely and the burn exquisite, and I tend to forget or ignore any pain inflicted by hot food and simply enjoy it. (Maybe my food isn't hot enough)

Well, what's your views? And do you have some good links (I know you have Auxin )

Thanks,

Ashoka

[Auxin]

"(Maybe my food isn't hot enough)"

Two words Caribbean Red

They'll melt your face right off your body and they have a lovely fruity boquet

But if you dont think you can handle one of the hottest peppers in the world DO NOT attempt to even nibble on one! (Australians do know who Mr. T is, right?)

Anyway, I dont know if I have any links to articles on the psychodynamics of chiliheads, but I'll look around.

The reason I LOVE them is that its the most versatile and diverse spice in existance and I love the vast variety of flavors, aromas, and yes- I love the heat. I like my food potent, something about maximizing the intensity of pleasant experiences (and yes, the burn is pleasant- if you dont go TOO overboard). Bean sprouts and rice will keep you alive, but why not make food taste good and FEEL good whenever possible.

[Thelema]

auxin i saw a great pepper today-designed to look like a tomato, very very sweet.

[Auxin]

Yeah, there are a couple tomato look-a-like peppers. I had one that was mini pumpkin look-a-like before it matured to a (1-2 cm) tomato look-a-like. Great for pranks, tell a little kid that they are baby pumpkins and watch them scream and run in circles when the heat hits.

There is also a penis look-a-like, and a vagina look-a-like pepper. Great for growing as borders in your garden if you have really uptight sexually repressed neighbors (also good for freaky stuff if you like peppers WAY, WAY TOO MUCH- what would you call that, massacistic vegiphilia?)

[theobromos]

Have you got a white chili, Auxin? I have only seen them during an open day at Reading University. I have just been given some white sweet pepper plants by a neighbour but I have always wanted to make a white curry. There is a white turmeric, and potato, celery and cauliflower make a nice curry.

[Thelema]

hey auxin why dont you tell us about this pepper you're working on? It's been at the back of my mind ever since you mentioned it, and now the intrigue is killing me!

[coin]

theo, i know this doesn't have the same exotic/novelty value, but moghul dishes like saphed murgh, white chicken curry, are made with white poppy seeds & ground almonds, white pepper, rose water & a small amount of spices that don't lend much noticable color, then the heat is added by taking as many needed green chillis, slit down the middle, and just steeping them in the dish for 15 minutes, then removing before served..garnished with pink/whatever rose petals

[Auxin]

Nope, I dont have any white chilies.

"why dont you tell us about this pepper you're working on?"

Which one? Sofar I have like 8 in the works and many more to come. The one I'm growing right now is a habanero relative that will be stronger than the habanero and should have a interesting odor (both fruity and citrusy if I'm successful)- it'll end up being differentiated into two cultivars, a red one and a yellow one.

Others are a extra large red habanero relative almost as strong as the orange habs with a fruity odor, a extra large red habanero relative with a fruity odor but mild heat, two large citrusy odored peppers half the heat of habanero (one red, one yellow), etc.

I've been trying to get going on a new project taking a real pretty ornamental pepper and giving it culinary and production appeal while keeping the ornamental qualities intact but the weather is too hot and the darned hybrid seed bearing fruits keep aborting.

Yes, I'm being a little cryptic but hybridizers tend to keep their projects cloaked in secrecy until the time is right.

[theobromos]

Quite right, something really new could be worth a lot of money. No purples either? I used to have an Ecuadorian purple chili from ...of the jungle, nice and very hardy to cold.

Thanks coin, a touch more authenticity for my white curry. Ground almonds are great in curry, as are poppy seed or hempseed cream. You have to add a lot more chili as the heat is bound to the creamy bits (technical jargon here). Haven't tried rose water in a curry. So, do saphed or murgh mean chicken? I am a veggie so I wouldn't know.

[Auxin]

"No purples either?"

Huh, me? I have at least one (trifetti fidjii) that turns from green to purple to red- thats how most of the 'purple peppers' really work, they crank out the anthocyanin while maturing but use it up by the time they are fully mature.

I dont have trifetti fidjii seeds to share yet though.

[gomaos]

Back to the original question:

WHY do we eat chillies?

Don't know about anyone else, but I have this real strong memory of eating real hot curried, chillied vegetarian food in South India and feeling "stoned" or "high" for quite a while afterwards....

Since then I was "hooked" on chillies...

[coin]

theo, saphed is white, murgh is chicken

as you said, you compensate for the creaminess, in this case it's yoghurt, which i forgot to mention..but it's not supposed to be too spicy..there's body from the poppy/almond..you can do similar thing with almond/cashew yoghurt(soak almonds/cshw overnight, peel, grind til smooth, thin to paste with milk, add to just boiled milk, blend, then culture)

i think the inclusion of rosewater is a persian influence...i love rose so much, i put oil on my chest everyday, but you probably dont wanna know that

here's the only version of that recipe i can find on the net using that spelling

http://www.mridula.co.uk/recipes/sec/2.html

it gives instructions that i think are to emulate claypot braising

i've made it, and it was not bad..tho just recently went back to being veg after an unexplained hiatus....

sorry for the diversion from chilli

[gerbil]

my case is a bit like gomaos aswell, the burn and floating head, taste etc hooked me on chilli.

But it's like that with alot of strong flavours, especially citrus and chilli.

Even if you do go overboard, and it's gets quite unpleasant for a while, once it calms down a little, it's almost euphoric in a sense. Which can make the next few hours bliss.

[Hagakure]

I used to grow lots of chilli plants as a kid (11-12yo perhaps). They were my first real personal project with plants. Growing from seed, harvesting crop, saving some seed for another crop.

I guess I had a fascination with them because they were plants that DID something. They seemed cooler because they packed that punch. They werent something you just picked and ate. I dunno, its hard to explain. Hopefully someone knows what im rambling about. :D

The euphoria might be part of it but I didnt know about this when i was younger. I barely ate the crops I grew, they were turned into sauce by my parents.

[mindperformer]

Lovely smelling Chocolate Habanero- Chilies in autumn:

[BentoSpawn]

Your body learns that chilli is a good source of nutrients, in particular vitamin C. Your body will release endorphins that reward you for putting good stuff into your system (thus doesn't happen right away, your brain needs to learn that the chilli is good for you) at the same time as offering a coping mechanism for dealing with the heat from the chilli.

So in effect chilli is like an addictive drug in its own way ;)

On the same topic I am growing a range of chilli at the moment - purple prince, choc harbenaro, perwian white, jalapeño, orange harbenaro, Trinidadian scorpion and bhut jolkia - these last 2 chilli are EXTREMELY FUCKING HOT and are both in the top 5 hottest chilli in the world.

I speak from research I have done on the subject - sorry I don't have any links for u off hand but the information is out there and should be that hard to find with ur friend google.

Edited October 25, 2012 by BentoSpawn

[Bread Filter]

It's pure dick sizing for me.

I enjoy some of the side effects though like the warm lips when it's cold in winter and the ability to rescue a failed dish to make the taste unrecognisable.

[mindperformer]

I think the release of endorphines is the main reason we eat them,

the habanero and tepins have the most delicious taste for me, also the african bell pepper

there are some connections with cannabinoids, they act on the vanilloid receptors like Capsaicin

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

A nice HOT chilli dish followed by a snuggle with the mrs is incomparable to just a snuggle minus the chilli... It defiantly has an aphrodisiac quality for me!

[bℓσωηG]

I eat chillies to prove how freakin tough i am, fark im tough... woooo hooray for chillies! chilli flakes in my beer! chopped fresh chillies with tequila, coconut water and lime juice on a tropical island, Anyone tried smoking dried chillies? goo on i dares ya hahaha

Edited October 26, 2012 by bℓσωηG

[bogfrog]

My dad was telling me recently that chillies work on the same receptors that are activated when you are in pain.

So the body responds to the 'pain' signal by scanning for the cause of this pain and clears out damaged and dead cells in the process.

[mindperformer]

yes, in particular its heat pain right?

Capsaicin doesn't work on taste receptors, but on heat receptors (like Piperine from pepper, Gingerol and Zingerone from ginger, Allicin from garlic and so on)

Dihydrocapsaicin (around 22% of the total Capsaicinoids in chili) is the strongest natural ligand for the heat-pain- receptor TRPV1 (or Vanilloid receptor 1).

The opposite of this receptor is the "cold and menthol receptor", the TRPM8. Menthol from mint, Geraniol from laurel, Eucalyptol from eucalypt, Linalool from hops and other plants. The synthetic Icilin binds 20-times stronger than menthol on this receptor.

The TRPV3 also mediates warmth or skin sensitization by Carvacrol, Thymol, Eugenol and other monoterpenoids.

Edited October 26, 2012 by mindperformer

[BentoSpawn]

I eat chillies to prove how freakin tough i am, fark im tough... woooo hooray for chillies! chilli flakes in my beer! chopped fresh chillies with tequila, coconut water and lime juice on a tropical island, Anyone tried smoking dried chillies? goo on i dares ya hahaha

 

It's pure dick sizing for me.

yeah right so basically everyone in india who all love super hot shit are all comparing penis sizes and trying to prove how much of a man they are ?

There's a vid of a chick on youtube doing an attempt on the bhut jolkia world record, i guess she has big ballz than everyone on this site.

Thank god for those two posters for opening up my eyes, ill never eat a chilli ever again.

Chili has great flavour and getting a chilli burn going feels good... that why chilli lovers love it and like it hot.

[mindperformer]

yeah, too much of it can cause acute rise in blood pressure, tingling and noise in the ears...

but one can get a great tolerance to it, like most people in south asia. Is also has antiseptic effects, which is useful in tropical countries. Very hot food is also very popular in cold himalayan countries like Bhutan, where winters can be very cold. In hot countries the internal hotness from chili cause sweating, which afterwards cools down. Like we know, cold drinks can cause internal heating and therefore should be avoided at hot days, therefore lukewarm drinks are better for cooling.

I use the dried grinded Naga Jolokia in the kitchen only in very small quantities, but my favourite is the wild ancestor Tepin-Chili or Chiltepin from the Sonoran desert. The Tarahumara indians use it as table-spice in great quantities. They have a very short fruity hotness, like bites of fleas.

the Tepin-Chilis:

one of the plants grown from seeds of this berries:

Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum (Tepin, syn. var. aviculare):

from natural autumn to artificial summer (started flowering):

Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum (Tepin, syn. var. aviculare) in flower:

Edited October 26, 2012 by mindperformer

[mindperformer]

on german, but google can translate ;-)

http://www.pepperworld.com/cms/kulinarisch2/chiltepin.php