Spice can be a mystery to many people.
Some people just seem to be more accustomed to spicy foods than others.
Building your spice tolerance is a difficult task. It takes time, but with patience and technique, you can build your taste buds to withstand more and more spice. The goal is to increase your spice tolerance and be able to eat anything you desire, even the spiciest ones.
Whether you’re a foodie or the world’s biggest spice wimp, this article can help you overcome your aversion or intolerance to spicy food.
What Causes Us to Feel Pain When We Eat Spice?
Depending on how used you are to spice, reactions to spicy food can always differ. Some people may find hot wings pleasant, while others might feel pain and get teary-eyed after having salsa.
Pain might not be the only reaction you get to eating spicy food. You can also experience the following:
- Teary eyes
- Tingling sensation in the mouth and lips
- Sweat
- Runny nose
Although the levels of pain may vary, the reason why we feel pain when we eat spicy food is because of capsaicin, an active component in chili that irritates your mouth and activates pain receptors in your mouth called the VR1
Some scientists believe that spice tolerance can be genetic. This means some people may be born with fewer pain receptors than others, and that genes account for 18 to 58% of a person’s ability to withstand spice.
How Do You Increase Your Spice Tolerance?
Although genetics play an important role in building your tolerance for spicy food, that does not mean you cannot do anything about it.
Handling spice can definitely be learned, and here is how you can do it.
Start small with mildly spicy food
Start with baby steps. Immediate exposure to extremely spicy foods like an entire jalapeno pepper can make it a lot harder for you.
What you can do, instead, is to start in small doses and with foods that are only mildly spicy. You can begin by introducing a little bit of red pepper flakes to your meals first, or get accustomed to a little Tabasco on your food.
When visiting restaurants, gradually introduce your taste buds to spice by starting from the bottom of the spice levels. At Main Bird, our hot chicken comes in different spice levels from “No Spice” to “Cluck it Up”.
Eat something spicy every week
What they say is true: practice makes progress. So if you want to train your taste buds and learn how to handle spice, eat more spicy food regularly. Even weekly food trips can help your tongue get accustomed to the spices.
Drink milk to stop the spice in its tracks
Do you ever wonder why people drink milk when their food gets too spicy? That’s because the fat and protein in the milk break down the capsaicin — the culprit behind the painful sensation from spices.
So the next time you’re trying out spicy food, grab a glass of milk and enjoy your food without worrying about the spice levels getting uncontrollable. The colder your milk is, the better!
Go for ice water or acidic drinks if you have no milk
If you don’t have milk near you, grab a glass of water. But remember to only get ice water if you don’t want the burning sensation to worsen!
Believe it or not, regular water doesn’t really help when it comes to stopping the burning feeling from spicy food. That’s because water is just going to spread the capsaicin all over your mouth. What ice water does that regular water cannot is numb your mouth and make the pain more tolerable.
If you want more flavor to your drink, go for the acidic drinks such as lemonades and orange juice because they can help cut through the spice.
Increase the heat over time
Work your way up. When you feel that your tongue has become more accustomed to your current spice level, bring it up a notch. Increasing the heat over time helps train your ability to handle spice.
You may start with mildly spicy food today, and then move on to the next spice level the next time you eat the same food.
Breathe through your mouth while you eat
It might sound weird or awkward to do, but breathing through your mouth while you eat spicy food actually helps relieve the burning sensation. That’s because you are bringing cool air into your mouth, and it relieves the capsaicin receptors.
Snack on something rough while you eat
If you want to distract your pain receptors and get them to focus on something else, munch on something rough while eating your spicy food. Foods like crackers, bread, or even fries can help relieve the pain in your mouth since the receptors in your mouth are distracted by the other foods’ texture.
Get something starchy along with your spice
Starch can also absorb some of the capsaicin in your mouth so try getting side dishes such as fries to help bring down the spice levels a little.
Consume something buttery or cheesy to cool your stomach
Spices, especially ones that you can barely handle, can be brutal to your stomach. Avoid irritation in your stomach by adding buttery or cheesy food to your spicy food. Like milk, the proteins and fat in buttery and cheesy food can neutralize the heat that may hurt your digestive tract.
A good plate of mac and cheese like ours here at Main Bird will be a perfect pair to your spicy food.
Take an antacid or eat something ahead of time if spice upsets your stomach
If you have a more sensitive stomach, buttery and cheesy food might not cut it. To make sure you have added protection to your stomach, take an antacid beforehand. This prevents you from having an upset stomach, especially if you will be eating out.
Remember that it will all be over soon
If you think you could not stand the heat, remind yourself that spice usually only hurts your mouth for 15 minutes. The pain will not last very long, so you can rest on that thought.
In the meantime, try going back to our other tips to help relieve the burning sensation as you wait.
Enjoy The Process
Finally, try to enjoy the process. There’s something about spicy food that can be exhilarating, and that’s not just in your head. In fact, studies have shown that spicy food actually helps your body produce endorphins and dopamine — your feel-good chemicals.
It may be painful for a moment, but trust the process. With regular training, you’ll be better at handling spicy food and actually learn to enjoy it.
Eat anything you want with an improved spice tolerance
Spices are one of the most fun additions to any cuisine, and just plain fun to eat. The thing many people forget, however, is that it takes time to build up your tolerance for spicy food.
While doing so can be a bit of an ordeal, it’s pretty simple in theory. Just remember, you want to enjoy it. Don’t rush it. Work up to that habanero gradually, don’t jump right into a ghost pepper.
If you want to have a go at spicy foods in Montrose, Sugar Land and Spring, Texas,
Main Bird can give you an awesome spice experience. Pick your own spice level and work your way up.
