Do you "adapt" to spicy food? And what biological explanation is there for this?

I dont know what that is! But I NEVER find anything spicy (even though I loathe spicy food, if someone finds something really hot, they get me to try… barely a tingle!)

I think its because I have been around spicy food all my life, it is what my dad and mum eat a fair bit, especially back in Sri Lanka..
these brits born and bred.. bunch of wusses!

haha but i think with your question about adapting to the spiciness after the first bite.. might be so, like adjusting to the temperature of a bath or cold weather?

I must have incredibly sensitive taste buds or something, because I simply cannot tolerate anything spicier than mild Americanized salsa. With most spicy foods, especially those that involve chile, the spiciness tends to grow over time as the chemicals (or whatever makes it taste spicy) build up in my mouth. However, this is not so with wasabi (spicy horseradish) and I can tolerate it quite fine.

I think it’s genetic. My dad doesn’t tolerate spicy food well either, but my mother and sister have no trouble eating spicy food.

I wish I could understand this better. I’d be happy to see if any posters have some scientific sources regarding this.

If I remember my high-school biology correctly, I think that constant exposure to a stimulus will make the nerve endings stop responding to it as much. That’s why you seem to get used to things like loud noises, bad smells, a cold swimming pool, and so on. I suspect taste works the same way.

@downtide Why doesn’t this seem to happen to everyone then? I seem to be in the small minority.

@Ame_Evil I have no idea. Its twenty-five years since I was in high school. Maybe it’s wrong.

@downtide You’re not completely wrong, but I think you’re using it in a different context. What you describe sounds more like classical conditioning (like Pavlov’s Dog). I learned about it my psychology class. Biological and genetic things work a bit differently though, though unfortunately I can’t be more specific about how this is true.

Yeah what you mentioned fits into the Rescorla-Wagner model of conditioning in which the “surprisingness” of the stimulus is diminished upon subsequent encounters. To be more precise.

I do see where you are coming about with those other stimuli such as getting used to cold water but I don’t think it is due to a psychological learning standpoint but more of one where the body adapts to meet its environment such as during times of stress.

So for example with the cold water your blood vessels would constrict (I believe) in order to keep heat with you. Maybe the taste buds just die for me alleviating the pain, but for other people this doesn’t appear to be so. In which cases genetics may be a factor. I haven’t asked my family about this but they are not a very big spice eating family. My sisters/brother have a relatively moderate spice limit where mine seems to be pretty high to the extent I have only found one curry (ceylon) that I couldn’t finish due to the spice. In that instance it was just too spicy from the onset and every subsequent mouthful was as spicy. I guess this observation further adds to the mystery of what is happening here.

after the first few bites, my mouth becomes kinda numb so i don’t taste the spiciness nearly as much as i did in the beginning. yumm spicy food.

I have very bland tastes, and this does not happen to me.

All I’d add is that let’s keep from confusing Hot (peppery) with spicy… :)

The conscious brain focused on novelties. This goes for all senses.