"A small portion of the population may for the supposed high that comes with the capsaicin," says Denise Coon, program coordinator of the Chili Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University. Instead, we do what all mammals who live in hot climates do to cool off: Drink water."īesides their preservative quality and flavor, there's another reason people eat peppers: They contain a chemical called capsaicin, the ingredient that makes them hot and tends to release endorphins in many people.
"It would be very unusual for people to be required to eat something to cool down, for us to have evolved this way. People living in hot climates before refrigeration figured out those who used spices lived longer. He thinks it's the preservative quality of spices. "So there is something else going on," he says. And in hot countries, people use more of every spice, not just ones that make some perspire. Only a fraction of people perspire from peppers, says Cornell University professor Paul Sherman.
They may cool down some people, but that probably isn't the reason people in hot climates eat them, one researcher says. "Look who eats them," he says, "people in Central America, Caribbean and Mexico." We stress flavor," says Deppe, who opened his store 17 years ago to serve boaters from the Caribbean who spent summers here.īesides flavor, he says people eat peppers because they make you sweat and cool you off. Even hot pepper sauce with a name like 95% Pain has flavor, they say, or it wouldn't be on their shelves. The experts here reject "stupid hot" sauce. Occasionally, somebody asks for the hottest stuff around - stuff so hot a bottle sells for $131.