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July 01, 2004

Might as well face it, I'm addicted to capsaicin

Have you ever experienced Pavlov's Response? Only one dish has ever made me drool. My husband's salsa. He takes home-grown tomatoes (or farmer's market), lime, rotel, green onions, garlic, and habanero and makes a drooling concoction. It is a strange experience to have your mouth water. As he is making it, I can smell it. Drool. Then when it is done, I dip into it. I can smell it as I bring in to my mouth. Droooooool. I postpone eating it to just drool more.

His salsa is my legal drug. It is so hot that I can only eat five bites before I have to take a break. But I always go back for more. This is because of my Capsaicin Addiction.

It is said that the burning sensation from capsaicin is addictive. It is also said that one becomes "conditioned" to this sensation. The reason is that during the eating of chiles, a chemical in the chile pepper called Capsaicin, irritates the trigeminal cells. These are pain receptor cells located throughout the mouth, the nose and the throat. When your body's nerves feel the pain induced by the chemical on these cells, they immediately start to transmit pain messages to your brain. Your brain receives these signals and responds by automatically releasing endorphins (the body's natural painkiller). These endorphins kick in and act as a painkiller and at the same time, create a temporary feeling of euphoria, giving the chile pepper eater, a natural high.
The body's other responses include increasing the heart rate to increase the metabolism, increasing salivation in order to try and refresh the mouth and by increasing the rate of sweating by the body. Your nose also starts to run and the gastrointestinal tract slips into high speed. Hot & spicy food lovers soon begin to crave these feelings and are soon hooked.

Yep, that's me. Addicted to capsaicin.

Here, here, and here are more interesting links on capsaicin.

Comments from Blog-City entry:

Pimme made this comment,
Time to invent jalapeno-aspirin!
Visit me @ http://pimme.blog-city.com
comment added :: 2nd July 2004, 23:06 GMT-06


MrDan made this comment,
I experienced Pavlov's Response just reading this!
MrDan
Visit me @ http://alien.blog-city.com

Posted by on July 1, 2004 12:45 PM |

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