Are you ‘addicted’ to curry? Doctor claims we can train ourselves to tolerate spicy food and get a ‘dopamine rush’ after learning to ignore the ‘burning pain’
The days of feeling left out because you got butter chicken while your friends got vindaloo may be a thing of the past.
According to scientists, you can train yourself to tolerate spicy foods and possibly even get a kick out of them.
Dr Stuart Farrimond said the brain may initially associate spice with a ‘burning pain’, which is caused by a chemical compound in chilli peppers. But once the brain learns the sensation is not harmful, it is replaced by a ‘dopamine rush’, suggesting the brain can be trained to embrace spice by gradually increasing intake.
When asked on the Unexpected Elements podcast why people have different tolerances to herbs, he said, “There’s a lot of research done to explain this.
‘We don’t know for sure whether this is learned from an early age, or whether it’s a kind of genes that are passed on.
A woman eating spicy food. Scientists say you can train yourself to tolerate spicy food – and possibly even get a kick out of it (stock image)
Dr Stuart Farrimond said the brain may initially associate spices with a ‘burning pain’, which is caused by a chemical compound in chilli peppers. But when the brain learns the sensation is not harmful, it is replaced by a ‘dopamine rush’
It seems like it’s a bit of both.
“But actually, anyone, I think most people, can train themselves to like spicy chili.”
According to Dr. Farrimond, when you eat spicy chili peppers, you feel “a burning pain” because of the natural compounds in chili peppers.
He said: ‘The substances in it, called capsaicinoids, hijack some of the pain fibres in the nerve.
‘And that results in a burning pain in your head, because your brain can’t tell the difference between scorching heat.’
The scientist said the brain perceives this heat as “dangerous.”
“And yet many of us love it, and that’s because over time we learn that it’s not harmful,” he added.
‘And when the discomfort goes away, we get a boost of dopamine, a feel-good hormone in the brain.
‘This is the kind of thrill you get, the same feeling you get when you get on a roller coaster, after your boss at work tells you you did a great job.
A selection of peppers and chillies in a supermarket. Dr Farrimond said that when eating chillies there is ‘a feeling of burning pain’ due to the natural compounds found in chillies (stock image)
This uplifting feeling.
‘We experience this almost like an addictive high after eating a spicy meal.’
In addition, the scientist said, children will enjoy spicy and strong-tasting foods more when pregnant and “will be less picky as they get older.”
“That’s because when you eat those foods during pregnancy and also when you’re breastfeeding, the taste compounds – the taste compounds – develop as the brain develops, and the baby then realises that these compounds are not harmful because mommy ate them,” he added.
‘So when I’m born, I know intuitively that this is not harmful.
‘So you could have prepared your child in advance by eating lots of curries and spicy food during your pregnancy.’