Some people love spicy food and always have hot sauce on hand. Others can’t stand it at all. But scientifically speaking, what actually happens in your body and mind when you eat spicy food? Turns out, quite a lot! We were thrilled to find out that it can even help you get a date.
To find out what effect this has on the body, we asked experts to tell us what happens when you eat spicy foods.
1. Hot sauce can actually cool you down
Spicy food may be the last thing you want to eat on a hot summer day, but it can actually help cool you down, explains a nutritionist. Kim YawitzRD, owner of Two Six Fitness in St. Louis, Missouri.
Some of the molecules that make foods spicy (such as capsaicin in peppers or allyl isothiocyanate in horseradish) activate Sensory receptors on the tonguethat trick your brain into thinking you’ve eaten something dangerously spicy, she explains.
“When your body senses the spiciness of spicy food, you start to sweat—the sweat eventually evaporates and cools your skin,” says Yawitz.
2. Spicy food also promotes blood circulation
Still not convinced that you should be generous with the hot sauce on a 100 degree day? Spicy foods can also increase blood circulationemphasizes Yawitz, which makes you sweat more and ultimately feel more refreshed in hot weather.
3. Capsaicin could prolong your life
Keep the doctor away with apples. But live a little longer with chili peppers. In some large studies, adults who ate spicy foods more frequently had about 13–14 Percent lower risk of death than people who prefer their food a little milder, Yawitz points out.
4. Spicy food can help you lose weight
Capsaicin slows down digestion in the upper gastrointestinal tractwhich can help you feel fuller and consume fewer calories overall, Yawitz says. In animal studies, rodents given doses of capsaicin comparable to the amount humans would eat gained less body fat over time than rodents that didn’t receive capsaicin (even with the same calorie intake).
5. Spicy food could also be linked to obesity
Spicy food can give your metabolism a little boost, but hot sauce isn’t exactly a miracle weight loss cure. some studiesAdults who ate spicy foods most frequently had a higher risk of obesity than those who ate these foods less often.
“A lot of it probably depends on the quality of the diet – it makes a big difference whether you’re sprinkling some chili over roasted vegetables or devouring buffalo wings and kung pao chicken every day,” says Yawitz.
6. A little spice can improve heart health
Adding an extra serving of hot sauce can lead to higher HDL (good cholesterol) and lower LDL (bad cholesterol), according to a 2022 study that showed a link between regular consumption of spicy foods and reductions in heart disease and stroke, says a nutritionist and certified diabetes care and education specialist Sherri BergerRDN. The capsaicin in chilies has been found to be linked to improved cholesterol levels.
7. It could curb your cravings for sweets
Some Views also suggest that capsaicin promotes satiety, so you may be less likely to crave something sweet or fatty after eating a spicy dinner, Berger says.
8. The spiciness of spicy food really makes you sweat
The scenario: You dip your chip in a salsa and it’s pretty spicy. You immediately feel beads of sweat dripping down your face. What’s going on? Capsaicin sends signals to your brain that you’re hot, hot, hot! The body turns on its cooling systems to fight the heat, explains Tanmeet SethiMD, physician for integrative and functional medicine and author of Joy is my righteousness“That’s why you sweat and the heat evaporates,” she says.
9. Your tongue tingles
Have you ever wondered why your tongue and lips tingle when you eat or drink something spicy?
This happens because the compounds in spicy foods dock onto nerve receptors throughout the gastrointestinal tract, including the mouth, and are activated in response to heat, explains the Los Angeles-based nutritionist Vandana ShethRDN.
10. You might get a runny nose
Spicy foods can also stimulate the expansion of the lungs and blood vessels, which in turn promotes mucus production and can lead to a runny nose, Sheth explains.
11. Spicy food can cause heartburn
Spicy food can irritate the gastrointestinal tract and lead to heartburn, acid reflux and stomach pain, explains Dr. Raj Dasgupta, chief physician for Sleepopolis and a quadruple board-certified physician. This is because capsaicin can relax the esophagus, allowing stomach acid to flow back into the esophagus, Dasgupta explains, worsening symptoms in people prone to acid reflux or gastroesophageal reflux disease.
12. After a spicy meal, you may have trouble falling asleep
The discomfort of eating spicy foods before bed can also make it harder to fall asleep and worsen sleep quality, Dasgupta says. This is mainly because the spicy food can irritate sensitive tissues in your mouth, throat and gastrointestinal tract, causing you to toss and turn.
13. Your mood improves
The capsaicin found in spicy foods triggers the release of endorphins and dopamine, which makes us happy and perhaps even gives us a feeling of excitement, explains nutritionist Cesar Sauza, RDN at the National Health Care Coalition.
14. You could burn your esophagus
Health officials warn against participating in hot sauce competitions and activities such as the “One Chip Challenge,” which involve eating foods with extremely high capsaicin content.
The Scoville scale (SHU) is used to rate the capsaicin content in foods. So bell peppers have zero SHU, while the Carolina Reaper pepper contains up to 2.2 million SHU.
Poison control explains that these types of problems can lead to serious health problems such as chest pain, heart palpitations and repeated vomiting, which can lead to esophageal damage and even heart attacks.
