I used to not like spicy foods and now I do. Why?
November 26, 2022 7:32 PM Subscribe
Sitting here eating a bag of Chip’s Fuego (pretty spicy!) I brought home from Mexico, I got to thinking that 5 years ago I would have been scared to even try one. I just was not a Spicy Food Person. Like, at all. Now I love spicy food. Why? Is it age? Did I grow a new tongue? Scientific explanations, speculation, all welcome!
From personal experience, my tolerance for bitter foods has changed with medication dosage (methotrexate). Maybe the drug was killing my taste buds, but I noticed the change both ways: more tolerance with an increase to a specific dosage and decreased tolerance when I dropped down to a lower level again. If you have any medication changes, that might be a side effect.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 9:47 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by gentlyepigrams at 9:47 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
You can acclimate to spicier food if you go gradually. Maybe you've been going to spicier restaurants or changed up your cooking without really thinking about it.
Hormones also change how things taste to people, and hormonal profile changes as you age.
posted by blnkfrnk at 12:23 AM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
Hormones also change how things taste to people, and hormonal profile changes as you age.
posted by blnkfrnk at 12:23 AM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I have a theory that eating spicy food is more about your mental state than your tongue. It's about accepting, and even appreciating, discomfort and trusting that it won't last forever rather than avoiding discomfort and wanting it to end as soon as possible. Does that track with how you feel like you've changed?
posted by LeeLanded at 5:35 AM on November 27, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by LeeLanded at 5:35 AM on November 27, 2022 [6 favorites]
I'm going on this journey too. I think it's just that you get used to it, exactly as every spicy-loving person has told me. At first you're like, well this is pain in my mouth, and I don't like that. Eventually you find out it's not the bad kind of pain.
posted by bleep at 6:54 AM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by bleep at 6:54 AM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
Over the last decade, my taste or perhaps tolerance for spice has changed a lot. Hormones might have played a role, but apart from a troubling half year of COVID + , I am even more of a supertaster now than I was when I was younger.
I've never been completely averse to spicy food, I've just also never actively chosen it. So if a group of friends felt we should have a chili or Indian cuisine, I'd go along, I just wouldn't enjoy it very much, while today, I might be the person making the suggestion.
Where I live, that might very much be about getting better restaurant options and learning more about cooking with hot spices. Because once a lot of spicy food was really bad, and depending on where you live, it might still be bad, but the amazing internet has made it easier to find and make good food all over the world these days. It's also become harder to get away with bad food. Like, when I was a child, the only spicy food we could get in our neighborhood was at the local Chinese place, and it was fine enough, and then it suddenly became much better when my stepdad learnt a few Mandarin phrases while he traveled for work in China.
When I later went to Indian places with friends, it was all about competitive spiciness, not about taste or flavor. Then a friend went to India and came back with techniques and fresh spices, and everything changed.
Today, because flights are cheaper than they should be, millions of people have visited Asian countries and know how Asian food should taste. You can't just pour a spice-blend into a pot of chicken stock, cream and vegs anymore.
We lived in Italy for a while when I was ten, and after that, I had a lot of friends with parents from the Mediterranean region, Italian, Spanish, Turkish and The Middle East. We all scoffed at the then popular assumption that Mediterranean food was spicy and garlicky. Garlic is a thing, and pepper flakes are used, but they are not ubiquitous and they certainly don't define those cuisines. It is much more nuanced, but in cheap "Italian" or "Spanish" or "Lebanese" restaurants, they dialed up the garlic and pepper, just as they dialed up the spices in cheap Indian restaurants or cheap Chinese restaurants. And all of that food was of poor quality.
There was perhaps in the US a similar relationship with Mexican food as that Northern Europeans once had with Mediterranean food? I can't say. I met Mexican food before I met North American food, because of family connections.
Anyway, today many of us can access the best quality food, either restaurants or recipes. And that makes the industry adapt. I think we are getting better quality food, and that makes us try more and develop our individual tastes.
posted by mumimor at 12:24 PM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
I've never been completely averse to spicy food, I've just also never actively chosen it. So if a group of friends felt we should have a chili or Indian cuisine, I'd go along, I just wouldn't enjoy it very much, while today, I might be the person making the suggestion.
Where I live, that might very much be about getting better restaurant options and learning more about cooking with hot spices. Because once a lot of spicy food was really bad, and depending on where you live, it might still be bad, but the amazing internet has made it easier to find and make good food all over the world these days. It's also become harder to get away with bad food. Like, when I was a child, the only spicy food we could get in our neighborhood was at the local Chinese place, and it was fine enough, and then it suddenly became much better when my stepdad learnt a few Mandarin phrases while he traveled for work in China.
When I later went to Indian places with friends, it was all about competitive spiciness, not about taste or flavor. Then a friend went to India and came back with techniques and fresh spices, and everything changed.
Today, because flights are cheaper than they should be, millions of people have visited Asian countries and know how Asian food should taste. You can't just pour a spice-blend into a pot of chicken stock, cream and vegs anymore.
We lived in Italy for a while when I was ten, and after that, I had a lot of friends with parents from the Mediterranean region, Italian, Spanish, Turkish and The Middle East. We all scoffed at the then popular assumption that Mediterranean food was spicy and garlicky. Garlic is a thing, and pepper flakes are used, but they are not ubiquitous and they certainly don't define those cuisines. It is much more nuanced, but in cheap "Italian" or "Spanish" or "Lebanese" restaurants, they dialed up the garlic and pepper, just as they dialed up the spices in cheap Indian restaurants or cheap Chinese restaurants. And all of that food was of poor quality.
There was perhaps in the US a similar relationship with Mexican food as that Northern Europeans once had with Mediterranean food? I can't say. I met Mexican food before I met North American food, because of family connections.
Anyway, today many of us can access the best quality food, either restaurants or recipes. And that makes the industry adapt. I think we are getting better quality food, and that makes us try more and develop our individual tastes.
posted by mumimor at 12:24 PM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
I was born and raised in Hyper Spicy Food country, but I was never really able to tolerate it. Chilli would give me light-headedness and just made things difficult to enjoy. It definitely made me an outlier amongst my peer group and even my family (my dad eats chili like candy, but at least my mum was with me in the limited spice tolerance). I don't really feel this way about curry spices (give me all the flavour!!) and I LOVE wasabi, just something about capsaicin was too much.
Then I spent time in the US long term, first as a summer residency then for an MFA. I found American food so bland that I was pouring hot sauce on almost everything to get some semblance of flavour. And I ended up gaining a significant spice tolerance! My habit of pouring chilli on everything continues today, even after my dad had to stop his chilli habit due to gastric issues (and honestly, so should I, but the tasteee).
So perhaps you've just been acclimitised to a different cuisine where chilli would have been good?
posted by creatrixtiara at 9:36 PM on November 27, 2022
Then I spent time in the US long term, first as a summer residency then for an MFA. I found American food so bland that I was pouring hot sauce on almost everything to get some semblance of flavour. And I ended up gaining a significant spice tolerance! My habit of pouring chilli on everything continues today, even after my dad had to stop his chilli habit due to gastric issues (and honestly, so should I, but the tasteee).
So perhaps you've just been acclimitised to a different cuisine where chilli would have been good?
posted by creatrixtiara at 9:36 PM on November 27, 2022
If you're in the US I wonder if its just you're experiencing the 'ambient' spiciness of food generally increasing as the country diversifies in populations from Latin American and Asian countries. I mean, I'm not even that old and I was born in a really diverse state and I don't remember hot sauce being a normal condiment/spice alongside salt and pepper at every restaurant table like it is today. Remember when there used to only be regular Doritos and Cool Ranch (which was considered "zesty" at the time)? Remember when Cheetos used to only come in 1 color (orange, not red)? Remember when Sriracha was sorta exotic? As the major food conglomerates tweak their flavor profiles to capture and cater to a changing US population I'd expect nearly everyone is likely more tolerant of spicy foods than they were 5, 10 or 20 years ago...
posted by flamk at 9:41 PM on November 28, 2022
posted by flamk at 9:41 PM on November 28, 2022
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posted by derrinyet at 7:59 PM on November 26, 2022 [11 favorites]