The Dan Experiment“From nobody to somebody”

The Power of Peppers

Dan on February 20th, 2006

I’ve always liked spicy food. Chili, General Tso’s Chicken, curry chicken, buffalo wings, etc. It’s gotten to the point where I call Frank’s Red Hot “weaksauce” and don’t consider something hot unless it has at least Cayanne, or even better Habaneros in it. For those of you who don’t know, habaneros are the hottest pepper in the world. Very little is required to make something hot. For example, earlier today I was crushing habaneros that I dryed a few days ago. When finished I licked the small amount of dust left on the spoon and my mouth was burning for about 5 minutes.

Only recently have I taken interest in the chile, the mechanisms of how it makes food spicy, and the side effects. Through our favorite friend the search engine I’ve found plenty of interesting data. I won’t restate all of the basics, but here are a few to get you started.

Capsaicin is the chemical in chile peppers that causes the spicy or burning sensation. The body has receptors that are sensative to this chemical. The interesting side effect of this is that the body produces endorphins to help stop the pain. Endorphins cause a natural high. This explains why many people like capsaicin-infused foods.

For the past two weeks I’ve been using much more capsaicin products in my food, including store bought habanero sauce, homemade habanero sauce, and chili powders. I’ve found that the rush of endorphins temporarily helps to make me more alert and less tired. It’s an interesting way of reducing sleepiness related to polyphasic sleep. Plus it makes food taste better

It’s gotten to the point that I won’t eat certain foods in resturaunts anymore because they aren’t hot enough. I was at Uno’s Saturday night and skipped on the chili because it’s mild and they didn’t have anything to spice it up. I think I’m going to start carrying habanero powder with me when I eat out. That should solve the problem.

Read More Comments (2) Health & Fitness, Sleep