Heat

Ever wondered why there’s always room for dessert? No? Well, I have!

There’s a scientific term for it: sensory specific satiety. This describes the decline in pleasantness of a specific food that has just been eaten. In other words, as we munch, our desire to eat that same food lessens over time. There are psychological studies on why we somehow always have room for just a little more food depending on what we’ve already consumed.

If you have a sweet tooth, you also might have a sweat tooth, a desire for heat, which may be why you also look to consume foods that are heavy in capsaicin, that magic element in chili peppers that makes us feel the burn.

I believe there’s a primal trigger inside us for hot or spicy foods. Perhaps our brain is craving the excitement of feeling alive and that’s the reason we crave hot stews in the heart of summer, or why we eat the hot peppers growing in the summer months, even after immeasurable pain. The next time you are blowing on a spoonful of steaming curry with all the extra hot sauce on a blazing summer day, think about whether you’re doing it to feel alive.