Because spicy is not a flavor. Spicy is more like an allergic reaction to a chemical that certain plants excrete as a defense mechanism. Humans are just weirdos because we enjoy our mouths and buttholes being on fire.
The chemical is capsaicin, and it’s a neurotoxin. That’s why with repeated exposure you can start to gain resistance.
Birds are less sensitive to capsaicin, which made having it around seeds beneficial for plants. Birds eat the seeds and then spread them after flying somewhere else, but mammals are deterred from eating the seeds and they are poor vectors for spread because most mammals that eat large amounts of vegetable matter have molar teeth that aid in breaking down small seeds for digestion.
Until a certain mammal decided they liked the burn, and deliberately spread those plants further than birds ever did.
Acktachully, your entire digestive system is lined with taste buds! They aren’t hooked into your normal sensory awareness, so you don’t taste your own digestive juices the way you taste your mouth, but they are used for sensing things like spoiled food and spice! Those receptors can trigger ejection of material if it’s bad enough (diarrhea/vomiting, depending where in the tract it sensed bad stuff). That’s why sometimes after something very spicy, your guts burn.
argument: we normally think of five flavors (salty, savory, sour, sweet, bitter) but without spicy the meal is not complete. shit, some people consider slimy a flavor and that’s fair.
i’ve eaten the peppers but never gotten the numbing people told me i was supposed to get to that’s why i’ve been confused relating specifically to szechuan peppers my entire adult life
Because spicy is not a flavor. Spicy is more like an allergic reaction to a chemical that certain plants excrete as a defense mechanism. Humans are just weirdos because we enjoy our mouths and buttholes being on fire.
The chemical is capsaicin, and it’s a neurotoxin. That’s why with repeated exposure you can start to gain resistance.
Birds are less sensitive to capsaicin, which made having it around seeds beneficial for plants. Birds eat the seeds and then spread them after flying somewhere else, but mammals are deterred from eating the seeds and they are poor vectors for spread because most mammals that eat large amounts of vegetable matter have molar teeth that aid in breaking down small seeds for digestion.
Until a certain mammal decided they liked the burn, and deliberately spread those plants further than birds ever did.
Plant: develops high amounts of capsaicin to ward off predators
Humans: ooh, this would be great with chicken!
Plant: am I a joke to you?
Similarly:
Yeast: I’m going to eat all this sugar and produce a toxin that will kill off competing organisms!
Humans: HAHA! Funny juice make head all silly…
Well… it‘s also killing humans, so… plan worked ig?
Humans: YOU TWO PLANTS NEED TO FUCK, I NEED YOUR OFFSPRING TO BE HOTTER
*Humans: YOU TWO
PLANTSNEED TO FUCK, I NEED YOUR OFFSPRING TO BE HOTTERIt is not meant to ward off predators though. Being eaten is the goal, thats how the seeds are scattered.
It is to ward off mammals. Their goal is to be eaten by birds, birds can’t taste capsaicin, so it’s just normal food. And birds distribute the seeds.
I eat a lot of pepper and I never poop out seeds. Nerd.
Maybe it’s just the mouth part we enjoy and the other we tolerate.
Speak for yourself while I go boof some jalapeños
Just the tip. You don’t have receptors in your colon.
Ooh I get to be that guy!
Acktachully, your entire digestive system is lined with taste buds! They aren’t hooked into your normal sensory awareness, so you don’t taste your own digestive juices the way you taste your mouth, but they are used for sensing things like spoiled food and spice! Those receptors can trigger ejection of material if it’s bad enough (diarrhea/vomiting, depending where in the tract it sensed bad stuff). That’s why sometimes after something very spicy, your guts burn.
https://askabiologist.asu.edu/taste-outside-mouth general info about digestive system taste buds
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23886384/ This one is specifically about taste receptors in the colon
I love this, thank you very much.
It’s an interesting fact.
I’m also going to raise my hand here to say I only enjoy mouth spiciness
argument: we normally think of five flavors (salty, savory, sour, sweet, bitter) but without spicy the meal is not complete. shit, some people consider slimy a flavor and that’s fair.
There’s also menthol and whatever compound is in Szechuan pepper.
OMG, now I’m craving Mapo Tofu.
i ran out of coffee beans and tea just doesn’t cut it are we talking a different spicy? is it that numbing effect some people get?
Numbing kind of, but it more feels like vibration or “buzzing”, it’s hard to describe
Built-in vibrator?
i’ve eaten the peppers but never gotten the numbing people told me i was supposed to get to that’s why i’ve been confused relating specifically to szechuan peppers my entire adult life