I absolutely love spicy food, and it’s never affected my gut. I was actually confused when I read about people getting the shits after a curry and wondered if it was a joke. I’ve had curries so hot it caused people to recoil into a coughing and sweating fit after they dipped their finger in and had a taste and I have one every other day. I feel the burning in my mouth, my face turns red, my forehead sweats, my esophagus feels weird, but (tmi I know lol) when I go to the toilet I’m completely fine. no gut pains either.
I love spicy foods and they don’t upset my stomach. Though I did eat one of those “one chip challenge” things back in the day and I did fine at the time but the next two days or so I felt like I had been poisoned. Only time that ever happened to me. You probably have a threshold too but it’s just very high. Genetics and practice helps, your gut biome critters are probably used to it too.
Most of the gastrointestinal distress from capsaicin is the result of poison countermeasures triggered by contact pain signals.
But capsaicin is telling your cells a lie which fewer believe each re-telling, so it requires increasingly ridiculous doses to trigger those internal signals.
If you eat spicy food regularly, you likely won’t get any internal signals again until you graduate to a different category of spiciness, such as extracts.
Hot sauce nerds consider extracts cheating, since you can achieve heat that’s many orders of magnitude above what the hottest pepper hybrids can produce, but do what you must to feel alive.
Oh, and in case you’re looking for recommendations, my current daily driver is Blair’s “Ultra Death.”
To set expectations, Tobasco (a common North American vinegar-based chili sauce) has a heat rating of 7,000 scovilles, whereas Ultra Death generally measures over 1 million.
If you like heat, extracts are a cost-effective step up, since each bottle lasts longer. At first anyway.
Acidic foods effect my belly more. Tons of tomato sauce, for example, and I get some acid reflux.
But spicy? Bring it on.
Was very happy to eat spicy foods until mid-late 40s, when I had to moderate because something just spontaneously switched as I got older and now my GI tract is unhappy if I eat a vindaloo, godfuckingdamnit.
I’m worried this is happening to me right now. I’m in my mid-40s and lately the day after all the spicy foods I usually consume have not been pleasant. Is there no fix for this??
Sucks bro. I mean, I can still tolerate what most people consider to be spicy food. At least “white guy” spicy. But no, I can’t eat the same kind of spicy food that I used to enjoy. It’s just a natural thing as you get older. This is a well known phenomenon. No fix.
I only ever hear that in movies. I assumed it happens if you eat low grade meat or smth like in the wild west in the US back in the day and it just became an old wives’ tale turned pop culture myth.
I do actually not like spicy food though, especially Chinese and Indian, but I’ve had enough of it to know I never had any gut issues.
It’s because you don’t drink as much as other people. People who chug a ton of of water or whatever after they’ve eaten something spicy are giving themselves diarrhea.
Sauce: a Taiwanese lady.
It supposed to affect your gut?
I was unbothered by it as well, at least intestinally, the physical pain of something hot enough was certainly something I could experience and dislike at the extreme end but my stomach and bowels would have been fine. That it until about the past 5 years or so when my stomach suddenly decided it couldn’t handle all kind of things that were never a problem before and now I totally get what people were talking about. It’s pretty sad, I miss being able to reliably tolerate highly spicy food.
As somebody who’s stomach is SEVERELY affected by spicy food, I suspect that you’re just a statistical outlier, like myself. Don’t sweat it. Instead, lean in. Be the “I can eat anything spicy and be fine” guy amongst your friends.
Boring ass comment, but same. I’m 36 and can’t stop eating spicy foods.
Spicy food never has an effect on me once it’s done burning my mouth.
Maybe there were a few times that it felt a little spicy coming out, but that’s very rare.
Yeah I’ve never had issues with spicy foods causing anything but mouth feels and I’ve tried sauces like the last dab (not often but I tried their nugget w/ 3 sauces they had in the freezer section)
I get heart burn more from sugary shit it seems.
How old are you? I used to be like you. I still hold the spice tolerance. I recently ate a spicy chicken burger they made me sign a waiver for because of how spicy it is. My body handled it okay. While I didn’t get diarrhea, my gut’s complaining.
32 and I’ve been into spicy food since I was like 20 lol
You’ve got a limited amount of years before it changes. It might not be dramatic, but you’ll reach a point where things start catching up with you.
ok now I’m definitely treating myself to a curry tonight lol, I’m gonna milk this blessing for all it’s worth 😂
My man! Im 32 as well and have been feeling a bit worse for wear, it couldnt be all the alcohol right?, and some nice spicy curry sounds delicious for tonight.
You know what? I forgot to account for the alcohol. You’ll probably be fine for a lot of years. I’m not the average person when it comes to that and I definitely noticed a lot of other changes to my health when I sobered up for a month last year. Having a convo with a friend about how we don’t heal as quickly as we did in our twenties probably distorted my thinking a bit.
idk i’m pushing 5 decades and i ferment my own habanero hot sauce cuz i can’t buy anything hotter. I eat gochujang with pretty much everything. The only time i have ever suffered from hot things is when i ate one of those One Chip Challenges. I usually stay away from capsaicin extracts/concentrations but my kid wanted to do it. My stomach hurt for about 30 minutes then stopped, that was the extent of it!
This is the answer. I would put the ‘nuclear death in a bottle’ type sauces on everything in my 20s. Switched to more normal hot sauce in my 30s. Since 40, even that has to be done in moderation. My fridge is full of hot sauces gifted to me that I won’t touch, but the extended family still thinks I like.
Question: do vinegar based spicy sauces hurt?
I have this talent as well; I use sriracha instead of ketchup on my burger and fries, with hot peppers.
But let me warn you, do not think this holds true when you have hemorrhoids. It will put you in a different universe of pain.
There’s a few factors.
First is genetics. Not everyone has the same base level reaction to peppers and/or capsaicin. And it can be either of them causing intestinal rebellion. Some people just don’t respond well to even sweet peppers.
Second is habitation. The more spicy stuff you eat in general, the more your body adapts to it.
But, there’s also variances in mucosa. Our guts, the colon in specific, opportunists produce snot. It’s essentially the same as what coats your throat and sinuses. Not exactly the same, but the same basic ingredients and purpose. Separate from how you respond to the food, and how used to it you are, some people produce more than others.
In your case, I suspect that you have a higher resistance genetically, and produce mucous in your gut that protects you from the irritants that spicy foods have.
If you also have a healthy gut biome going, it’ll add a layer of resistance to things being over stimulated.
And that’s what causes the diarrhea and cramping for most people. The chemicals irritate tissues, so your body treats or like an emergency. That means to increase bowel motility and flush the guts with water. Which means squiiirt.
