IMPACT OF SPICY FOOD

We all know the food in Indian sub-continent is spicy. Be it the parts of Northern India or deep down southern states or even the deserts of Rajasthan. Indian food is mostly spicy.

Contrary to this, European cuisine is mostly bland with no or minimal use of spices.

An obvious question for the inquisitive mind would be why is it so? Can there be a specific genuine logical reason to such an occurrence?

Let’s put on the thinking cap coupled with the eagerness of a child to learn and discover the reason behind why things are the way they are and try to put to use the grey and white matter hidden inside our cranium.

Yes, there is a valid reason behind such food habits.

It’s not just our taste buds which make us consume such food. Taste buds enjoy spicy food because they are nurtured in such a manner since our childhood.

For those who believe our forefathers knew no scientific theorems might be true to a certain extent but what they knew very well was the application of science to the practical purposes of life. But we’ll save that for my next article and go on straight to the point.

The real reason for such a pattern of food consumption lies with scientific theories and their application. Any pupil of our modern generation literate enough to have passed the secondary education levels will have definitely come across a term called “diffusion”.

For those who don’t know or have forgotten what they had read in text books long ago, let me just put in succinct words the theory of diffusion. “It is the process in which heat/energy spreads or gets transferred from an area of more density to an area with less density in order to ensure equilibrium”.

So now most would be wondering how this is related to the spiciness or blandness of the food we savor. Here we go:

When we consume spicy food, it produces a lot of heat inside our body. So much so that we almost perspire when, the food is spicier than out taste buds to feel at ease. Yes that is the hint for the wiser lot ;)

This heat produced inside the body by the consumption of spicy food actually raises the temperature of the body compared to the atmospheric temperature. Hence starts the process of diffusion. Heat tends to dissipate out from the body so as to bring equilibrium in the temperatures inside and outside the body.

Thus we perspire. This perspiration tends to dry up and in the process of evaporation of sweat molecules heat also gets transferred from body to the environment and thus we start feeling cool.

Hence, when the atmospheric temperature is hot, spicy food helps the body release heat and keeps us cool.

This is the exact reason why people in the Indian sub-continent prefer spicy food, though without knowing the scientific reason behind it.