Ears smoke, Mouth burns, Eyes water
Are chile peppers addictive? This question has been the subjects of a great deal of debate in scientific, social, and gourmet circles. Chile peppers, they all agree, are addictive. They produce an intense craving for eating more on a daily basis. Bland food consumption by chile pepper addicts does not produce "that satisfaction." The question is whether this intense craving for hot chile peppers is true addiction or whether it is just a psychological addiction? Some tend to believe that it has more to do with the mind than the body.
Tobacco and chile peppers belong to the same botanical family and have alkaloids that produce almost the same sort of body response, where neurons become "numb" to the dose and develop tolerance, requiring increasing dosages to achieve the same effect. So in order to get the heat response, people eat more and more or hotter chillies.
Surprisingly, there is no withdrawal symptoms if one stops eating chile peppers. But with Tobacco, it is the reverse. Tobacco consumption actually increases the numbers of receptors and aggravates the addiction. Read what a Duke university study reveals:
"A study at Duke University Medical Center revealed that in smaller doses, capsaicin and nicotine create some of the same physiological responses which include irritation, secretion, sneezing, vasodilation, coughing and peptide release. In larger doses, when injected, capsaicin destroys many of the neurons containing its receptors, while nicotine actually increases the number of nicotine acetylcholine receptors. The result is that large doses of capsaicin result in the body becoming less responsive to capsaicin, but that large doses of nicotine cause the body to become more responsive to nicotine." (with thanks from an article by Jane Butel).
Nicotine causes both psychological and physiological dependency, with the mind and body wanting more and more. But capsaicin in chile peppers does not make your body dependent!
Addiction to consuming chile peppers, therefore, is more of a craving than a physiological addiction. Nonetheless, it can be a habit forming food, as any chilephile will tell you!
There is, however, a big difference. To get nicotine you need to ingest tobacco, which can be carcinogenic and leads to very many diseases that your body cannot fight against after some time. Eating chile peppers, on the other hand, is a healthy habit. Capsaicin helps remove arthritic pain, toothache, and muscular spasmodic pains when used topically. The pupular Lakota analgesics, despite their fanciful marketing featuring images of dramatic American Indians and bird calls, contain nothing more than capsaicin!
When taken internally, capsaicin is antibacterial. It benefits the whole alimentary canal and purifies the blood through increased blood flow and sweating. It also helps in the digestion of food by stimulating the production of digestive juices. It can kill cells responsible for diabetes. It reduces and removes cholesterol problems. It also can remove sinus congestion.
Chile peppers, like many other vegetables, leave an alkaline residue in the body upon digestion. An alkaline body is most desirable, because it does not let cancer cells or colds, viruses, flus, etc. survive in the body. No wonder cayenne finds its place next to honey, lemon (a strong alkalizing food, despite its acidic taste), and ginger in some peoples' regimens of natural cold remedies.
Capsaicin has been found to induce mass suicide of prostate cancer cells and cancers of many other types. The research of capsaicin as a medicine is sustaining momentum and almost all the countries are doing research in benefits of consuming chile peppers.
...all that aside, I will be posting the true way to fall in love with chile peppers tomorrow or so...
Tobacco and chile peppers belong to the same botanical family and have alkaloids that produce almost the same sort of body response, where neurons become "numb" to the dose and develop tolerance, requiring increasing dosages to achieve the same effect. So in order to get the heat response, people eat more and more or hotter chillies.
Surprisingly, there is no withdrawal symptoms if one stops eating chile peppers. But with Tobacco, it is the reverse. Tobacco consumption actually increases the numbers of receptors and aggravates the addiction. Read what a Duke university study reveals:
"A study at Duke University Medical Center revealed that in smaller doses, capsaicin and nicotine create some of the same physiological responses which include irritation, secretion, sneezing, vasodilation, coughing and peptide release. In larger doses, when injected, capsaicin destroys many of the neurons containing its receptors, while nicotine actually increases the number of nicotine acetylcholine receptors. The result is that large doses of capsaicin result in the body becoming less responsive to capsaicin, but that large doses of nicotine cause the body to become more responsive to nicotine." (with thanks from an article by Jane Butel).
Nicotine causes both psychological and physiological dependency, with the mind and body wanting more and more. But capsaicin in chile peppers does not make your body dependent!
Addiction to consuming chile peppers, therefore, is more of a craving than a physiological addiction. Nonetheless, it can be a habit forming food, as any chilephile will tell you!
There is, however, a big difference. To get nicotine you need to ingest tobacco, which can be carcinogenic and leads to very many diseases that your body cannot fight against after some time. Eating chile peppers, on the other hand, is a healthy habit. Capsaicin helps remove arthritic pain, toothache, and muscular spasmodic pains when used topically. The pupular Lakota analgesics, despite their fanciful marketing featuring images of dramatic American Indians and bird calls, contain nothing more than capsaicin!
When taken internally, capsaicin is antibacterial. It benefits the whole alimentary canal and purifies the blood through increased blood flow and sweating. It also helps in the digestion of food by stimulating the production of digestive juices. It can kill cells responsible for diabetes. It reduces and removes cholesterol problems. It also can remove sinus congestion.
Chile peppers, like many other vegetables, leave an alkaline residue in the body upon digestion. An alkaline body is most desirable, because it does not let cancer cells or colds, viruses, flus, etc. survive in the body. No wonder cayenne finds its place next to honey, lemon (a strong alkalizing food, despite its acidic taste), and ginger in some peoples' regimens of natural cold remedies.
Capsaicin has been found to induce mass suicide of prostate cancer cells and cancers of many other types. The research of capsaicin as a medicine is sustaining momentum and almost all the countries are doing research in benefits of consuming chile peppers.
...all that aside, I will be posting the true way to fall in love with chile peppers tomorrow or so...
(Image taken from Clip art with thanks)
Thanks to a Canadian friend for his editing inputs.
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