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geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: tp4tissue on Thu, 07 October 2021, 21:44:20

Title: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: tp4tissue on Thu, 07 October 2021, 21:44:20
Or is it just a myth perpetuated by the Big-Chili corporation.

(https://cutekawaiiresources.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/13.gif?w=560)
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: noisyturtle on Thu, 07 October 2021, 21:54:30
Literally just had a doctor in a hospital tell me Tuesday to eat more capsaicin, curcumin, and ginger to reduce joint swelling and back pain.

I reckon it's not a myth
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: kajahtaa on Thu, 07 October 2021, 22:06:01
Spicy food (Thai, Malay, Chengdu) makes me happy however everyone is different.


Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: fohat.digs on Fri, 08 October 2021, 07:40:57
A foodstuff is not necessarily healthy just because it is spicy, but there are many specific spicy foods that have been scientifically proven to be beneficial.

Garlic and ginger are spectacularly good, for example.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: Findecanor on Fri, 08 October 2021, 08:55:50
Different spices have different medicinal effects. That has often been why herbs and spices have been grown or imported in the first place. But every medicine can have side-effects.

I think that any blanket statement "x is good for you" is stupid.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: Tastenplatte on Sun, 10 October 2021, 10:02:15
Different spices have different medicinal effects. That has often been why herbs and spices have been grown or imported in the first place. But every medicine can have side-effects.

I think that any blanket statement "x is good for you" is stupid.

I agree. Most stuff is only good in moderation.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: MIGHTY CHICKEN on Sun, 10 October 2021, 10:58:37
Super spicy make me cry, crying is healthy in moderation right
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: noisyturtle on Sun, 10 October 2021, 12:46:12
Super spicy make me cry, crying is healthy in moderation right

I had a joke like that back when I did standup

'When I cut open an onion and peel it, the onion makes me cry. When I cut open my wife and peel her skin back it makes me cry too. Therefore my wife must be an onion.'

You can see why I quit comedy
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: tp4tissue on Sun, 10 October 2021, 12:50:13
Super spicy make me cry, crying is healthy in moderation right

I had a joke like that back when I did standup

'When I cut open an onion and peel it, the onion makes me cry. When I cut open my wife and peel her skin back it makes me cry too. Therefore my wife must be an onion.'

You can see why I quit comedy

^^^  This post right here officer..
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: fohat.digs on Sun, 10 October 2021, 14:14:04

You can see why I quit comedy


If you want to find out who loves you more, lock your wife and your dog in the trunk of your car.
Come back and open it in an hour, and see which one is happier to see you.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: tp4tissue on Sun, 10 October 2021, 15:11:52

You can see why I quit comedy


If you want to find out who loves you more, lock your wife and your dog in the trunk of your car.
Come back and open it in an hour, and see which one is happier to see you.


Tip #37

Fohat handles Marriage !
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: Kavik on Tue, 12 October 2021, 10:21:11
I have a weird relationship with spicy food. My mouth is so desensitized to it that the level of spiciness required for taste is a level which hurts my stomach, so I have to be very careful not to go overboard. That said, when I get the balance right, my body gets a feeling unique to having eaten spicy food. It's like a slight buzz that lasts for several hours and it generally makes other aches and pains go away for the duration (or maybe it's just distracting). As for empirically verifiable health benefits, it beats me.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: chyros on Wed, 13 October 2021, 02:36:33
Spicy food increases your metabolism which helps lose weight. That alone is a useful thing.

I used to eat loads of spicy food, but I can't handle it at all anymore, my stomach reacts extremely badly to it now.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: Thockologist on Wed, 13 October 2021, 08:41:54
From what I know the benefits from spicy food comes from the capsaicin in it so depending on where what you're eating gets the spice from it could be good for you. I remember reading that it can help with inflammation somewhat like noisyturtle mentioned as well as being good for heart health.

I have a weird relationship with spicy food. My mouth is so desensitized to it that the level of spiciness required for taste is a level which hurts my stomach.
I always thought that once your mouth got used to the spiciness that your stomach would also be completely fine with large amounts of capsaicin. The discomfort from having too much spice is awful though, I went way, way overboard for dinner once and even the next day I felt pretty terrible for a bit.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: tp4tissue on Wed, 13 October 2021, 08:47:14
I remember reading that it can help with inflammation somewhat like noisyturtle mentioned as well as being good for heart health.

But this could be propaganda like blueberry corporation saying blueberries are a super-food, which is BS, it's no more super than potato or any other veggie.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: Kavik on Wed, 13 October 2021, 15:21:39
Spicy food increases your metabolism which helps lose weight. That alone is a useful thing.

Increasing metabolism is a myth. The only substance I'm aware of that actually does this is Dinitrophenol, and it's extremely dangerous because a slight error in dosage cooks the user's insides (however, it also markedly increases appetite, which may counteract its effect). There's even relatively new evidence that exercise doesn't burn surplus calories after the first few weeks/months of an exercise program because the body adapts by reducing energy expenditure elsewhere (Constrained Energy Expenditure Model). I'd wager that if spicy food does have an effect on weight loss its by way of increased satiety/reduction in appetite.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: noisyturtle on Wed, 13 October 2021, 22:45:45
I remember reading that it can help with inflammation somewhat like noisyturtle mentioned as well as being good for heart health.

But this could be propaganda like blueberry corporation saying blueberries are a super-food, which is BS, it's no more super than potato or any other veggie.


For a food is the key factor here. Certain beneficial chemicals in spices are high for a food, blueberries are a good source of vitamin k for a food. You can take a supplement and it would be more effective in a higher and concentrated dosage, but the idea is most people don't think of themselves as robots.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: phinix on Mon, 13 March 2023, 09:20:32
I'm having bariatric surgery (reducing stomach) next month and was told my surgeon that spicy food definitely deteriorate stomach lining, so I cannot eat spicy food after surgery. If someone has stomach polyps or ulcers, spicy food will ruin it further for you.
So I guess it is not that healthy, surely not in huge amounts.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: tp4tissue on Mon, 13 March 2023, 12:55:20
I'm having bariatric surgery (reducing stomach) next month and was told my surgeon that spicy food definitely deteriorate stomach lining, so I cannot eat spicy food after surgery. If someone has stomach polyps or ulcers, spicy food will ruin it further for you.
So I guess it is not that healthy, surely not in huge amounts.

Tp4 has gotten to the point where he can not taste spiciness on the tongue at all, 0x detection.

Receptors there must be dead.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: fohat.digs on Mon, 13 March 2023, 13:03:43

Receptors there must be dead.


Starved for want of animal protein, no doubt.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: tp4tissue on Mon, 13 March 2023, 13:26:24
Starved for want of animal protein, no doubt.

100% veggie 100% climate responsible.

(https://i.imgur.com/RSB9WCf.gif)

A plantbased individual who drives a hummer has a significantly lower ecological impact (climate warming potential ) than a meat-eater that drives a tesla.

2000 gallons of water is used to produce 1- lb of beef,  that's 2 months of showers worth.

A cow eats 6x its weight in grains.

70-80% of all farmland grows feedcrop for animals.  Which in turn only derives 15% of total calories eaten by humans, the vast majority eaten only in rich nations such as ours.

Feedcrop + ranching is responsible for 90% of Amazon deforestation, 70-80% of all deforestation.

We murder 80 Billion animals a year. 

Only approximately 150 million humans died in all 20th century wars combined.

/Animal Holocaust

Philip Wollen, former vice president of Citibank:

Poor countries sell their grain to the West at a time when their children are dying in their arms. And we feed grain to farm animals. To then eat a steak? Am I the only one who thinks this is a crime? Every piece of meat we eat is a slap in the face of a starving child. And when I look him straight in the eye, do I have to keep quiet?


Full speech: https://vk.com/wall-39547984_4526?lang=en

Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: CaesarAZealad on Tue, 14 March 2023, 08:42:20
Spicy food ain't healthy for me XD
Took my BF to a taco place last night and the sauce on mine lit my mouth on fire. Told him to try it, he took a bite, then proceeded to slam the rest of the sauce container like a shot. He didn't even need to say anything, I could hear the words through his aura, "You have white people taste buds"
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: fohat.digs on Tue, 14 March 2023, 09:01:04

"You have white people taste buds"


I used to work with a guy whose mother was Thai (and who was an amateur bodybuilder) - he could tolerate and enjoy unbelievable capsaicin quantities.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: CaesarAZealad on Tue, 14 March 2023, 09:47:53
Unironically there's certain nationalities that will just have a natural resistance to spicy food. That may sound horrendously racist but it's 100% true. Can't remember where but I remember that I read that in places like Korea they have less issues with sodium intake despite them consuming more than the average American. I'd assume when you're growing up in an environment where that's part of the natural cuisine you'd develop your tastes differently compared to some place like the US where you have to actively seek out spicy food.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: tp4tissue on Tue, 14 March 2023, 10:29:31
Unironically there's certain nationalities that will just have a natural resistance to spicy food. That may sound horrendously racist but it's 100% true. Can't remember where but I remember that I read that in places like Korea they have less issues with sodium intake despite them consuming more than the average American. I'd assume when you're growing up in an environment where that's part of the natural cuisine you'd develop your tastes differently compared to some place like the US where you have to actively seek out spicy food.

may not be true,  korea  hypertension / heart disease are through the r00f.   skyrocketing colon cancer too from the increased meat - consumption  post westernization.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: chyros on Tue, 14 March 2023, 10:57:05
I miss having spicy food :( .
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: Surefoot on Tue, 14 March 2023, 11:12:47
Science says that Yes, it's true for a lot of spices and also capsaicin:
https://www.nature.com/articles/484009d
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28255166/
https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/8/2484
https://www.salisbury.edu/administration/administration-and-finance-offices/dining-services/newsletter/march-1-2022/wordl-of-spices.aspx

@Thomas: you miss the dopamine + endorphine shot triggered by capsaicin :) It's almost addictive. I love Sichuan food for that reason too.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: ArchDill on Tue, 14 March 2023, 11:54:33
Yes
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: CaesarAZealad on Tue, 14 March 2023, 12:31:57
Unironically there's certain nationalities that will just have a natural resistance to spicy food. That may sound horrendously racist but it's 100% true. Can't remember where but I remember that I read that in places like Korea they have less issues with sodium intake despite them consuming more than the average American. I'd assume when you're growing up in an environment where that's part of the natural cuisine you'd develop your tastes differently compared to some place like the US where you have to actively seek out spicy food.

may not be true,  korea  hypertension / heart disease are through the r00f.   skyrocketing colon cancer too from the increased meat - consumption  post westernization.

Well now I look like an idiot : P
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: tp4tissue on Tue, 14 March 2023, 12:43:36
Well now I look like an idiot : P

well it's just a guess CAZ,  it could also be due to their rampant binge-drinking.

Soju ftw !!
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: chyros on Wed, 15 March 2023, 10:57:33
@Thomas: you miss the dopamine + endorphine shot triggered by capsaicin :) It's almost addictive. I love Sichuan food for that reason too.
Haha I don't think I ate THAT hot tbh xD . When it's just melting your face it kind of loses taste I think. But it enhances a bunch of dishes and flavours.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: Surefoot on Wed, 15 March 2023, 12:06:16
Haha I don't think I ate THAT hot tbh xD . When it's just melting your face it kind of loses taste I think. But it enhances a bunch of dishes and flavours.
Hey Sichuan cooking is not "face melting hot" truly (far from the levels of Thai green curries, or south India massala), unless you go with these silly hot pots filled with peppers !
Most of it is mild, still just enough to get your blood running and activate the usual mechanisms of capsaicin :) The Sichuan peppercorn do balance out the burn from the chili peppers. Dan Dan Noodles or Chongqing Noodle Soup are both good examples of that flavour. It's rich, complex, and addictive.
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: chyros on Thu, 16 March 2023, 07:31:00
Haha I don't think I ate THAT hot tbh xD . When it's just melting your face it kind of loses taste I think. But it enhances a bunch of dishes and flavours.
Hey Sichuan cooking is not "face melting hot" truly (far from the levels of Thai green curries, or south India massala), unless you go with these silly hot pots filled with peppers !
Most of it is mild, still just enough to get your blood running and activate the usual mechanisms of capsaicin :) The Sichuan peppercorn do balance out the burn from the chili peppers. Dan Dan Noodles or Chongqing Noodle Soup are both good examples of that flavour. It's rich, complex, and addictive.
Isn't it Szechuan? Anyway, yeah, that's not too bad. I do like that sort of stuff a lot. I used to go a lot with sambals of various types, which is an Indonesian condiment that consist of chili paste, somestimes raw, other times fried with more ingredients. But I can't even take the sweet (sambal manis) variety anymore :( .

It doesn't help that I like the Hot Ones series by First We Feast a lot xD . Really jealous, them's some tasty-lookin' wings :D . I almost want to try Da Bomb just to see how awful it is, but I'd be downing a family pack of Rennies and be up all night, I think xD .
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: Surefoot on Thu, 16 March 2023, 11:16:03
Isn't it Szechuan?
Yeah it is, too, depending on how you westernize the original Chinese name ;) (also seen: Szechwan, and mostly in China like in restaurant menus or local english-speaking newspapers: XiChuan) - the capital is Chengdu.

It doesn't help that I like the Hot Ones series by First We Feast a lot xD . Really jealous, them's some tasty-lookin' wings :D . I almost want to try Da Bomb just to see how awful it is, but I'd be downing a family pack of Rennies and be up all night, I think xD .
I think his YT show is doing a lot more towards global consumption of chilis and hot sauces than any food chain marketing dept would have dreamed of.
Da Bomb is truly disgusting, it's not worth trying, the taste itself is terrible. I'm in the "flavour" camp of things - if it carries a strong punch, it better has to carry equally strong (and good !) flavour in order to reward you. Notice how on this latest season the Sichuan sauce has received high praise by everyone ;) I have learnt how to do it at home, it's divine on about anything with noodes and/or meat. And that way you can manage the amount of chili in there (you have to get the true Sichuan chili peppers of course, for that unique smoked taste..)
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: chyros on Fri, 17 March 2023, 03:52:03
Isn't it Szechuan?
Yeah it is, too, depending on how you westernize the original Chinese name ;) (also seen: Szechwan, and mostly in China like in restaurant menus or local english-speaking newspapers: XiChuan) - the capital is Chengdu.

It doesn't help that I like the Hot Ones series by First We Feast a lot xD . Really jealous, them's some tasty-lookin' wings :D . I almost want to try Da Bomb just to see how awful it is, but I'd be downing a family pack of Rennies and be up all night, I think xD .
I think his YT show is doing a lot more towards global consumption of chilis and hot sauces than any food chain marketing dept would have dreamed of.
Da Bomb is truly disgusting, it's not worth trying, the taste itself is terrible. I'm in the "flavour" camp of things - if it carries a strong punch, it better has to carry equally strong (and good !) flavour in order to reward you. Notice how on this latest season the Sichuan sauce has received high praise by everyone ;) I have learnt how to do it at home, it's divine on about anything with noodes and/or meat. And that way you can manage the amount of chili in there (you have to get the true Sichuan chili peppers of course, for that unique smoked taste..)
You learn something new every day! ^^ Do you have a good recipe? I might have an idea on how to adapt it for my purposes :D .
Title: Re: Is Spicy food Actually Healthy ?
Post by: Surefoot on Fri, 17 March 2023, 04:12:12
Do you have a good recipe? I might have an idea on how to adapt it for my purposes :D .
Most flavourful one would be:
A slight variation:
t=282s

I found the chilies on amazon but I think you can find them in our countries now ;)