Hi. Welcome to the blog for my IB English B class at Jur Hronec High School in Bratislava, Slovakia. Below you will find links to other websites and discussion questions. My students are required to comment on one of these postings every month and also respond to each other's comments. Feel free to add your two bits, but be aware that all comments are monitored before being posted.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
why do people like hot peppers?
Some interesting ideas in this article. Like how masochism is one thing that differentiates humans from other animals. What do you think? Why do people like pain? Why do some like it more than others? Masochism seems like a fairly macho thing. Are men more into pain and risk than women? Are young people more into it than old? If so, why? Why are hot peppers more prevalent in some cuisines/cultures than others? Do you see spicy hot food as an important part of Slovak culture?
Perhaps the most rational statement that was mentioned in text was 'we eat what is food for us' and by this 'motto' we can describe desire for chilly and other issues connected with humans eating spicy food. Chilies can help digest single crop food more effectively as was said in article. Single crop food was very common 6000 years ago when hot pepper(also contains capsaicin) first appeared in cuisines in human world. The diet of ordinary man hasn't changed so much until recent past. Simply if you are eating something for let's say 5000 years you get used to it and you start liking it. This can be mostly applied for Mexico and other states where spicy food is common part of diet. However you may argue that there are some people in other parts of globe such as Europe ,which like spicy food and they were not used to eat it. I assume that this number of people is way more smaller than number of chilly eaters in Mexico. This tastes of this minority group can be also explained by 'we eat what is good for us' and for some reason eating chilly supports digestive system or other important body process of these people.
ReplyDeletePungency of chilly protects plant from fungus attacks, this may be the same reason why we are eating chilly too. Maybe we eat food which contain capsaicin to get rid of fungus that can appear in our body, but to prove or disprove this statement serious research must be done. Furthermore, I would not say that masochism is definition of human. There is masochism and it can be expressed as desire for pungent food, but this is a psychical disorder not a feature of intelligent being.
Mojmir Mutny
In fact Chilies are fascinating for a lot of people. Yes, they stimulate pain, which consequently releases hormone of pleasure, the endorphin and that’s why people enjoy it. But not all of them necessarily devour these painful fruits just to please themselves as Dr. Rozin claims in his theory. In fact, chilies are consumed mainly in the countries where the climate is hot and as these magic peppers have the antimicrobial effect and thus applying them to meat serves as the preservation and keeps it free from bacteria for a longer time. The other beneficial effect is in weight loss since it’s well known that chilies reduce weight and that’s the main reason why women consume them. Even I know few of them and that’s why I disagree with his theory, even though not completely. There’s something true about enjoying pain, “it’s similar to the fun of riding a roller coaster”, as was said by the doctor Rozin, but not only that. Just think of any sport that is threatening for us at first and then, all of the sudden when we realize it’s actually fun and we enjoy them. There are many of them. Boxing, wrestling, even the bullfighting could be counted into this group of sports. So what I’m trying to say is that it is unreasonable to disapprove the beneficial effects of chilies as well as their taste and claim that people are consuming them just because of the consequent pleasure released by the pain.
ReplyDeleteBut humans are the only mammals who enjoy chilies? A dog of a friend of mine literally gulps them and asks for more. Isn’t he mammalian? I don’t think that the author had any kind of this evidence and concluded this just because of one experience. It’s not really knowledge but just an opinion and therefore I think it shouldn’t be presented to the readers as the matter of a fact.
Otherwise it’s interesting article, which is really actual as it is a harvesting season and brings up the theory of which I would never think of without reading it.
Oli
A very interesting article. I don’t know whether chilies actually cure some sicknesses, however people definitely don’t consume them to improve their health. I myself am not a consumer of chilies or any sort of spicy food, but as stated in the article, some people simply love pain. I don’t think they enjoy the actual pain, they rather like the feeling of relief after the pain fades. But why do some people enjoy the fire on their tongue and other don’t? A matter of course, not all people like chilies. I think the taste for chilies and this sort of masochism is being incited to people as they grow up. In other words, if a kid is being exposed to chilies, there is a very good chance that as a grown up, it will enjoy eating chilies. Many cultures consume chilies for centuries, meaning that several generations have been taught eating spicy food as they grew up. Eventually, eating chilies became a tradition. As stated in the text, hot peppers originally grew in America and they were brought to Europe, Asia and Africa by colonizers. Therefore, almost every Mediterranean and Asian cuisine consists of various spicy ingredients. I am from Slovakia, and I just can’t eat chilies. I never ate spicy food, and I will probably never enjoy the chilly flames on my tongue. I know a bunch of people who stoke chilies all day long, but I think that majority of the population in Eastern Europe eat no chilies.
ReplyDeleteHowever if we forced any other mammal to eat hot peppers, it would certainly not enjoy the heat. Why is that? I think because mammals cannot act other way than instinctively. I agree with the statement in the article, that enjoying the continuing pain (or overcoming fear of pain) is simply mind over body. Only human can hide or suppress instincts and listen to what the mind is saying.
The article provides an interesting insight into the world of chili peppers and the reason why people enjoy the burning pain they are causing. Being a chili fan (though a little wimp compared to other chili lovers, just like the author) I have pondered several times upon the reason behind the passion that makes masses go literally crazy about the green, yellow and red little camouflaged devils. It seems like, also supported by Dr. Paul Rosin, that there is something more to it than just a physical need for vitamins and other good effects on our body like lowering blood pressure or fighting microbes. I agree with Dr. Rosin that it could be the thrill, the excitement that is a consequence of a previous awful pain. This fact can be easily explained by the release of endorphins that happens during consumption of chilies and that causes our bliss. It appears that human beings enjoy going beyond the borders of the ordinary. It does not necessarily have to imply that people in general like living on the edge but in my opinion everyone has their own ways how to achieve the ultimately happy sensation and excitement. Otherwise life would be dull and tiresome. Of course the limits for what they are willing to do for it are set differently for different people. Some savor only things that they know are completely harmless to them but still cause the pleasure through pain, just like chili peppers. Mind over body. They know that the burning will not last for long. This is also the difference between humans and animals. We are able to realize that there are different kinds of suffering and we voluntarily undergo some of them in order to experience the heights of endless satisfaction. No animal would consciously find pleasure in something purely negative like human beings tend to.
ReplyDeleteIt is not important to eat chilies, it is not healthy to eat chilies and it is not useful at all. But still lots of people enjoy eating it. So do I. I like Dr. Rozin’s idea that we eat chilies because of the pain and I agree with him. When someone says “masochism” I imagine some strange man who is cutting himself in order to gain some satisfaction. When I eat some hot pungent sauce, I do not treat myself as a masochist. Am I a real masochist if I eat enormous quantity of this sauce? I don’t think so. This “benign masochism” really sounds like something innocent or even beneficial. I would describe it as a “healthy” masochism or the masochism that is not bad at all. A masochism, which everyone could practice without feeling embarrassed. I don’t want to tell people to do it. I just want to say that it is not harmful enough to make irreparable damage. I think almost everyone could eat a chili pepper without need of medical treatment. You might feel pain without being truly hurt. “Mind over body. My body thinks I’m in trouble, but I know I’m not,” Said Dr. Rozin in the article. I think that benign masochism such as eating pungent food is one of the typical habits of humanity that no one could destroy.
ReplyDeleteTomáš Langer
I don’t think that taste for chilies is a sign of masochism. I personally like chilies and hot food, but I’m no “pain junkie” as is written in the article. My opinion why the chilies are so popular is that they provide some diversity in our food. Thanks to them our food isn’t all sweet and delightful, but also hot and rough. This diversity is good I think, because it makes our lives less boring.
ReplyDeleteOther thing I don’t agree with the article is that the author says: “I can tolerate only a moderate degree of pain, perhaps because I came to chilies late in life.” I think that why some people like chilies a lot and the others not at all is just a normal difference in human individualities. For example some people like red color, others blue or black. And I think this is the case with chilies. On the other hand I think that women should like chilies more than men. As the article says: ”When asked after the test what level of heat they liked the best, they chose the highest level they could stand”. And many clinical studies have proven that women have higher threshold of pain, because they are meant to give birth to children. This should mean that women should withstand more heat and more enjoy the chilies.
Responding to Alex:
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I must say, you changed my mind! I haven't thought about endorphins, and pleasure they make. I think you are making a good point here. Endorphins released during pain may be source of an excitement and therefore they may be the reason why we are eating chilly. The idea of going beyond border is connected with simple relation: more pain, more endorphins, more fun. Not just any kind of fun but fun created by your brain chemicals. And there is no type fun that can compete with this kind of pleasure.
One thing, I do not agree with is the idea of pushing off the animals out of the whole matter. Why animals cannot have obsession with a spicy food? Why they do not find pleasure in a spicy food? I think they do, but we do not have much opportunity to observe these kinds of habits. In summary, people may eat chilly because of endorphins and they might be source of the obsession, but still that is not the feature of a intelligent being, but the feature of a living organism.
to: Tomas Langer
ReplyDeleteHow do you know it is not healthy? Even though the article does not completely say that it is healthy, it does not say it is unhealthy either. The mentioning of whether it is or not is just in the statement which says that experts argue about whether it has some beneficial effects or not. But I understand that it might be your way of seeing it. Otherwise I agree with the part about the masochism. It’s not completely adequate to confront enjoying pain of chilies with masochism, because common masochism itself is considered to be brutal way of destroying or harming your body to please yourself. But are masochistic people feeling embarrassed? Though it’s their choice thus I think that there’s no reason to be embarrassed, maybe just after realizing that masochism is not exactly the right way of expressing themselves. But yes, it is some kind of “mind over body” as is written but the mind is not always trustworthy as it can fail any time.
@Tomas Langer
ReplyDeleteI both agree and disagree with your statement. It in fact IS very healthy to eat chillies and therefore it is also uselful. As proven by health experts, chillies help our digesting system and they also make us feel good because of the endorfins. A lot of people even claim they help reduce weight which I’m not so sure is true. Although I must agree that there are hundreds and milions of people who enjoy spicy food and there are just as many of them who don’t. That’s just the natural way of things, people have different taste. Also, as Mojmir stated earlier masochism is a psychical disorder, not an act of our own will so it’s not exactly accurate to call these chilly-lovers benign masochists. I think we can divide this people into two groups: the ones that like the taste simply because they find it delicious and the rest that basically got used to it and therefore started to like it.
Mária Dudáková
@enrik:
ReplyDeleteI basically agree with you on almost all points, like what you said about the absence of chilies tradition- I don’t think there really is a tradition of eating chilies in Slovakia. The majority of us didn’t use to eat too spicy meals, probably because it’s been only a few years since all the Mexican super-spicy products came to our market.
And like you, I also think that this sort of masochism is unnatural for animals and that’s what prevents them from eating chilies- why would they want to hurt themselves? Because that’s sort of what it feels like, it really is funny that people like a kind of pain, when you think about it for a while.
However, I don’t think there necessarily must be a connection between the tradition and the level of heat you can stand- maybe it has also something to do with the level of pain that’s bearable for each individual.
@mojusko
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion about the Mexicans. It is well-known fact that Mexicans like spicy food. Eating hot peppers is their cultural tradition. Most of them are familiar with spicy food from their childhood. They are really used to eat it.
I do not think that we eat chilly to get rid of fungus. Well, I just can’t imagine a fungus in my body. It sounds like from some SCI-FI movie. But I do not know. It can be true. As you said: “to prove or disprove this statement serious research must be done.”
Tomas Langer
@oli
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about stimulating pain causing pleasure. The release of endorphin when someone does extreme sports or (as written in the article) rides on a rollercoaster is amazing. I also read on the internet that people can be addiced to endorphin. This could be the reason why do people like the highest level of heat they can stand. I don't know anyone using chilies becouse of its antimicrobial effect, but I think this is the reason why is chili so popular in tropical parts of Asia and America. I have also personal experience involving chili and my tomcat. Two months ago we bought chili plant, but he is ignoring it as well as the other plants. He just doesn't consider plants as food.