Q&A: Why do some people like spicy food and other don't?

Hi guys. Following a long discussion about spicy food during the filming of my latest vlog episode yesterday, I am going to offer you some spicy food for thought. The topic of discussion is: why do some people like spicy food and others don't? Now I spoke to quite a number of people about this as we tasted some spicy Asian food on the streets of East London and I didn't find it quite spicy enough whilst others interviewed thought it was already too spicy. People often just say, "oh it's because you're from Singapore, you love all forms of spicy food." But then again, I have two sisters: one loves spicy food like me whilst the other hates it. I remember how when we would go out for Penang prawn noodles in Ang Mo Kio, we would order two portions with extra chilli and one portion "mai hiam" (without any chilli). And my "mai hiam" sister is still living in Singapore and refusing to eat spicy food. So what are some of the factors that determine how we react to spicy food? Why do some people love spicy food so much whilst other people hate it?

Too spicy? Not spicy enough? Ai hiam mai?

1. It is a cultural thing.

If you are brought up with a certain kind of flavour, then you're far more likely to be receptive to it if you have been familiar with it since young. Given that my parents do enjoy spicy food and it was readily available in my primary school canteen, I suppose I was culturally conditioned to appreciate spicy food rather than shy away from it. There were times when I didn't have a choice in the matter: for example, if my grandmother made a pot of spicy chicken curry, then if I wanted to have some chicken with my meal, I had to take the spice of the curry with the chicken. Chillies and other kinds of spices are often used in Asian cooking to create more complex and interesting flavours, especially when you have a limited budget and are unable to buy expensive cuts of meats. A handful of chillies will always be cheaper than a whole chicken. Given that my grandmother lived through WW2, that mentality was always a part of her cooking.

My British friends however, are not brought up with those kinds of flavours, spicy foods like curries were often seen as something exotic eaten by immigrants and foreigners. Indian restaurants in the UK would often offer British people curries with very little or no chilli at all, given that their palates are so unused to the sensation of spicy flavours. The same curry that will bring delight to my tastebuds would probably make them cough in discomfort and beg for a glass of water. Heck, I experience the same thing when I accidentally drink alcohol - I am not used to drinking alcohol and I don't enjoy the flavours at all. The consumption of alcohol for pleasure was never really part of my diet growing up in Singapore, so it was not something I ever grew to like. Some people do adapt to new flavours more readily than others: some British people do love spicy food today despite it never having been a part of their diet growing up. Likewise, I have grown to truly love cheese - even though my father thinks that it positively stinks and can't stand it.

How much spice is too much spice for you?

2. Mother nature programmes our bodies to seek out foods that are good for us. 

Have you ever observed in nature how animals know which plants are edible and which plants are poisonous? Isn't it incredible just how animals instinctively know which plants to seek out for food and which poisonous ones to avoid? This knowledge is something hardwired into their brains, for them to figure this out and it comes in the form of a craving for a certain kind of flavour - so they keep going back to eat the same kind of edible fruit in the forest. As humans, we have developed that natural instinct over the years - take rotten meat for example, it gives off a stench that we would find really unpleasant. It is just a reflex that we have to keep us safe from food poisoning, you don't need to be taught that in a science lesson. That is a simple way for us to recognize that the meat is no longer safe to eat and must be avoided. Have you ever drank milk that has gone off? The foul, rancid, putrid taste would immediately make you spit out the bad milk. It is almost an involuntary response - we don't need to be taught that the milk is not safe for consumption when it tastes so bad, it is somehow hardwired into our system.

So there are two reasons why mother nature may programme some of our bodies to seek out spicy foods. Firstly, spices are a useful way to keep foods from going off in hot weather - people in hot countries like India, Thailand and Nigeria typically have quite spicy cuisine not just because they like the flavours, but also because it serves as a preservative. On the other hand, in cold countries like Iceland, Norway and Denmark, the weather is often so cold (especially in the long winter months) that they hardly need to worry about food going off when it is freezing cold and snowing. Note that people who live nearer the Equator tend to have darker skin than those living far away from the Equator - mother nature gives their skin this darker pigmentation to cope with the harsher UV light in the tropics, whilst those living in places like Scandinavia are of much fairer complexion because they get far less sun in those latitudes. So this natural craving for spicy food may be just another survival mechanism that mother nature has given those in hot countries to cope with the challenges of eating foods that will be safe for us, just like the way darker skin hues are a natural protection against the effect of sunburn. Mother nature has many amazing ways of keeping us safe like that.

How do animals know which fruits are edible and which are not?

There's another very good reason why mother nature may make our bodies crave chillies: they are a good source of vitamin C, carotene, various B vitamins, potassium, magnesium and iron. It is in fact, a very nutritious fruit - though most people usually consume it because they like the flavour, rather than because of the nutrition that chillies provide. So mother nature could send a signal to our taste buds to seek out these highly nutritious chillies because they are actually so good for us, even in the days before we can look up the nutrition values various foods online. People in central America have been enjoying chillies for centuries and they did so way before modern science and dietitians came along. Chillies however, cannot grow in cold countries - they do not like cold temperatures and most chilli plants would struggle to survive the winter in a place like England. So in the absence of locally grown chillies, mother nature has not trained English taste buds to seek out a foreign fruit not indigenous to England. However, once you move towards the warmer climates of southern Europe, you will find spicy chillies emerging in their cuisine.

3. Different people like different kinds of stimulation

The sensation we get from spicy food is that of pain - think about the moment when you saw a green chilli and you thought, yeah it is green it can't be that spicy no? Then you bite into it and realized, oh dear, I was wrong, it does pack a punch and I have well and truly underestimated this little green chilli. The feeling of searing pain and extreme discomfort than slowly spreads through your tongue, your mouth, your lips as the tingling sensation takes over - you instinctively want to drink water to get rid of the pain or at least dull the tingling sensation in your mouth. Somebody please give me a very cold, sweet desert now please! You regret having taken on that little green chilli instantly. Indeed, there are plenty of Youtube videos of people eating crazily hot chillies and then recording their reactions - like the one below. In case you're in any doubt about the kind of pain that chillies can cause, well, here's a video for you.

But hey, us humans, we're strange people. We like pain and stimulation. I'll give you an example - I went to a water theme park in Greece called Aqualand where they had this water slide featuring a vertical free fall. It starts off quite gently for a few meters and then it drops you into a nearly vertical free fall as you plummet down, giving you the sensation of free falling. Oh and just to make it even more scary, one version of the slide starts you off in a pitch black tunnel, before dropping you into the free fall. Is it scary? Of course it is. But something made me get up there, chuck myself down this pitch black tunnel into a free fall. I screamed like a little girl on the way down and shut my eyes, waiting for it to be over. What did I do when I got to the bottom? I said, "oh yeah that was such a thrill, let's join the queue and do it again." The fear got my adrenaline pumping and I liked that. And yes there was a long queue of people waiting to do the same thing - to be scared out of their wits in the name of 'fun'. Now some people would look like a water slide like that (or say a roller coaster) and think, hell no, that is not my idea of fun. Whilst others would gladly queue for half an hour in the hot sun just to be 'tortured' as such and actually find that quite fun.

4. Are you risk averse or pro-risk?

Perhaps it is a strange part of our culture, that we have evolved to embrace a certain kind of fear and pain - think about haunted houses, horror movies, skydiving, roller coasters, or even insane physical challenges like swimming in ice cold water. People who embrace such fear and pain are seen as brave rather than borderline insane and an in the case of 50 Shades of Grey, sexy rather than perverted. Thus in that context, the fact that very hot chillis trigger off an unpleasant sensation in our mouths is the very reason why some people embrace it in the name of adventure. Indeed, we are constantly encouraged to seek new experiences because it will broaden our horizons, those new experiences will teach us valuable lessons, enrich our lives and within that we have been culturally conditioned to pour scorn upon people who are too afraid to try new things. Therefore some of us may even be conditioned to declare our love for spicy food, just to make a point that we're willing to embrace such unusual experiences. It then boils down to each individual's character whether or not someone would ride that roller coaster or eat that Carolina Reaper chilli - some people are more risk averse than others. Incidentally, my mai hiam sister is actually the risk averse who refused to go ice skating with me because she was afraid to fall, but my chilli-loving sister gladly went ice-skating with me and allowed me to teach her how to skate. So can we actually predict your love for spicy food based on your character?

Are you risk averse or does the thrill excite you?

5. We are all unique individuals at the end of the day.

We can analyze this till the cows come home and come up with different theories from cultural ones to biological ones - but what makes one person like the taste of a certain kind of food and another person dislike it? Sometimes, it is totally random whether or not one person likes a food - the classic example used is Marmite which tends to illicit a "love it or hate it" gut reaction. The same thing can be applied to so many other things in life - say we take a group of people and play them a song by a brand new singer that nobody has ever heard of. Different people will have different reactions to the song and it is often hard to justify why we like the vibe of a song and not another. How about when we shop for clothes then? How often have you gone shopping with your best friend and s/he picks up and item and says, "ooh that is so nice" and you think, "no way, I don't like it." The underlying reason is that despite all the cultural baggage we may possess, we are still unique individuals at the end of the day and people of a certain culture are certainly not a monolithic entity. That is why I can have a Singaporean 'mai hiam' sister who dislikes all forms of spicy food despite being from the land of laksa and chilli crab. Go figure - how do you explain that?

So that's it from me on this issue. What do you think? Do you enjoy really spicy food and why? Are there any other factors that I have not covered? Or do you think that none of these factors matter and that it is pretty much random whether or not we like spicy food? Please leave a comment below and let's talk about it. Many thanks for reading.

Oooh spicy Singaporean food. I love it.