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Comment by dominotw | Hacker News Reader

Why do cultures from hot climates like India and mexico eat spicy food? I've heard vague explanations like it 'cools body down', would be interesting to see any research done on this.

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Having lived in hot & cold climates, I presume it has to do with spoilage. Before convenient refrigeration and sterile packaging, many people were simply in a race to eat food before it went bad - when the supply of food was limited. Spicier foods, I presume, either mask the decay to the palate, or kill off more microbes - more a necessity where hotter year-round, vs being able to refrigerate or freeze food by merely setting it outside much of the year.

Capsaicin isn't a toxin and doesn't do anything to microbes. It acts chemically on our nerves to produce a pain signal, but doesn't do anything at all to damage tissues or cells. Disease microbes wouldn't even notice it was there.

Capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) is the active component of Capsicum plants (chili peppers), which are grown as food and for medicinal purposes since ancient times, and is responsible for the pungency of their fruit. Besides its multiple pharmacological and physiological properties (pain relief, cancer prevention, and beneficial cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal effects) capsaicin has recently attracted considerable attention because of its antimicrobial and anti-virulence activity. This is the first study of its in vitro antibacterial and anti-virulence activity against Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A streptococci, GAS), a major human pathogen. The test strains were previously characterized, erythromycin-susceptible (n = 5) and erythromycin-resistant (n = 27), cell-invasive pharyngeal isolates. The MICs of capsaicin were 64–128 μg/mL (the most common MIC was 128 μg/mL). The action of capsaicin was bactericidal, as suggested by MBC values that were equal or close to the MICs, and by early detection of dead cells in the live/dead assay. No capsaicin-resistant mutants were obtained in single-step resistance selection studies. Interestingly, growth in presence of sublethal capsaicin concentrations induced an increase in biofilm production (p ≤ 0.05) and in the number of bacteria adhering to A549 monolayers, and a reduction in cell-invasiveness and haemolytic activity (both p ≤ 0.05). Cell invasiveness fell so dramatically that a highly invasive strain became non-invasive. The dose-response relationship, characterized by opposite effects of low and high capsaicin doses, suggests a hormetic response. The present study documents that capsaicin has promising bactericidal activity against erythromycin-resistant, cell-invasive pharyngeal GAS isolates. The fact that sublethal concentrations inhibited cell invasion and reduced haemolytic activity, two important virulence traits of GAS, is also interesting, considering that cell-invasive, erythromycinresistant strains can evade β-lactams by virtue of intracellular location and macrolides by virtue of resistance, thus escaping antibiotic treatment. By inhibiting intracellular invasion and haemolytic activity, capsaicin could thus prevent both formation of a difficult to eradicate intracellular reservoir, and infection spread to deep tissues.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4643145/

That's really interesting. I imagine that helps explain the prevalent use of Capsicum plants in preserved foods.

By spicy I think you are referring to "hot spicy" as in peppers as opposed to cardamon, clove, cumin and all those wonderful spices. "hot spciy" i.e heat form peppers is really Southern Indian food, even though the rest of India gets plenty hot temperatures as well.

This was a a result of the Portuguese brining it to India from the new world(along with Christianity from Europe.) These were two of my first impressions of traveling from North to South in India - "hmm the food just got wonderfully hot and wow there are all of sudden a lot of churches")

I've heard these pseudo-scientific explanations like "makes you feel cooler" as well but I think it's really just an acquired palate over time in areas that the Portuguese were trading in.

That being said I have a folk remedy for when I feel like I;m getting sick with a fever which is to order Thai curry and ask for it 'Thai hot." This usually gets a laugh and a request for confirmation. It appears to me to help the fever break. Placebo or not, I have no idea.

> the food just got wonderfully hot and wow there are all of sudden a lot of churches

implies that you might have visited the green south Indian state called Kerala. Kerala is also called the Spice Garden of India (or maybe the world).

Happy to shamelessly and contextually plug my native land Kerala Tourism's website here if anyone wants to visit the land of spices.

https://www.keralatourism.org/kerala-article/spices-kerala/5...

More about Kerala here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala

They have a fantastic youtube channel as well:

https://www.youtube.com/user/keralatourism/featured

And one of my favorite videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE8sc2932Js&t=13s

Checked out a few videos from that channel, they are pretty good, thanks for sharing. I've sometimes found that in regards to tourist topics or spots, foreigners know more than locals :)

They tend to know the best food joints, party places, road shortcuts, etc. Maybe because they get more time to explore.

This is fortuitous as I'm planning a trip back to the motherland. I'm Tamil by birth, but my mom's side of the family traces their ancestry to Kerala, and a few generations back they were based in Palakkad. Any recommendations for a temple-lite itinerary?

I would not miss Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. You could look at the Gopurams alone for hours.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple

It's just beautiful. I don't think pictures do it justice. It's an experience. That would also put you in striking distance of Kerala or it could be made as an easy side trip from Kerala.

Edit: I didn't read closely enough that you said temple-lite. But I think its still a good suggestion :)

I'm definitely a fan of the Madurai Meenakshi temple, and the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Chennai (partly because it's so close to my grandparents' home). But at this point, most of my trips back home have been spent in temples, and I'd like to have a more, shall we say 'secular' experience. :)

I am a Christian from Kerala but I think the below temples are the most visited in Kerala. I wouldn't know deep about the reasons on why they are popular.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarimala (This one is famous for the seasonal pilgrimage)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadakkunnathan_Temple (350 years old, famous for the architecture)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guruvayur_Temple (A lot of people gets married in this temple)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple

(Now famous for the recent discovery of huge gold stash)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple#Temple_...

To visit these temples, you would start your trip from Thrissur district all the way down south to Trivandrum district. All of the places near to the temple has got 3 star hotels for stay and all the cities are easily accessible by train except Sabarimala. Almost everyone in Kerala can satisfactorily converse in English and all routes and signs are written in English too. Kerala is a tourist friendly state.

I think the parent commenter was requesting an itinerary without many temples ("temple-lite" → "light on temples"), rather than suggestions of temples to see!

>"implies that you might have visited the green south Indian state called Kerala"

Indeed! Kerala is fantastic! From the Western Ghats to the beautiful beaches Kovalam, amazing spicy fish curries, friendly people, I could go on and on ...

There's no shame in that plug at all :)

Speaking about the medicinal values of Chilli -

In the southern states of India especially Kerala, a home remedy for cuts & bruises is to apply a paste made by grinding green chilly (Bird's eye chilli) and salt. Though it will have a painful burning sensation for sometime, this home remedy is found to heal the cut faster without any infection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird's_eye_chili

Interesting, had never heard of that before, though I have Kerala friends.

Calendula tincture or ointment works almost like magic too, for small cuts at least. I remember the first time I used it on a small cut on my finger, I couldn't believe how fast it healed.

>heat form peppers is really Southern Indian food, even though the rest of India gets plenty hot temperatures as well.

Eh; it's hard to generalize that way - Andhra food is VERY spicy, but Tamil cuisine, especially of the vegetarian variety, is quite tame. The heavy use of coconut ensures this.

But even Tamil includes Chettinad cuisine which is quite spicy, I was more generalizing hot spicy is more common in the South vs the North of India. I think that's accurate. Out of the 5 states southern states of India, 3 of them Telangana, Kerala and Andrha seem to have plenty of hot chili spice dishes.

Some Maharashtrian (e.g. Kolhapuri cuisine) and Punjabi (can't think of any right now) dishes are plenty spicy. Heard the same about a few Rajasthani dishes too. (I've had plenty of the first two types, not had the third yet.)

This is probably true of some other Indian states as well, maybe including the North-East ones (Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, etc.).

(Edit: Add Goa to the above list of states with spicy food - some Goan dishes are hugely spicy :)

After all, that "heat" may be helpful in cold weather as well, to stimulate the body, to clear the sinuses and so on. And the northern Indian states are colder than the South.

And speaking of cold weather, any of you who are in such an area and don't mind spicy stuff, check out lasun chutney (garli chutney). Easy to make at home, hot and tasty stuff (use small amounts with your food), and will add some zing to many meals. A Maharastrian item. The two main ingredients are red chilli powder and garlic (a few other spices may be added by some people). Ground and roasted (maybe) and then fried into a thick paste.

Rajasthani cuisine would surely be a match for Andhra an Goan analogues!

Yes, I've heard a few of their dishes use a hell of a lot of red chillies :)

>garli chutney

Typo, should be garlic chutney.

Fair point on Chettinad cuisine. There's a reason their variation of chilli powder is called gunpowder. :P

That's funny -- I like spicy Kimchi soup for the same purpose. Not as hot as "Thai hot", but it does a much better job than western chicken soup for the same purpose.

One theory I read is that hot climates tend to produce more hot or pungent plants, as these chemicals are often insect repellents. And the tropics lack winter, which gives plants an annual break from insects. They're under constant attack, so they evolved more potent defenses. So part of it is just that these hotter flavors are just more available in hotter climates.

Here you go:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/spicy-food_n_162820...

In short, they eat spicy food because it makes you sweat, which is the mechanism to cool your body down.

My guess is that it's because spices grow well in hot climates. Spices are popular everywhere - consider how expensive spices were in temperate climates before easy global trade. If they're cheaper then they're more likely to become a major part of the country's cuisine.

Chilies in Asia are not from there, they came from the Portuguese during the period when they dominated the black pepper trade and also owned a colony in what is now Brazil. pepper went to Europe and chilies went to India. Before then capsaicin was unknown there. Mexico I imagine also got chilies directly from the south.

Chilies originated in Mexico, where they have been eaten for at least 10,000 years. The word chilli is a Nahuatl word (indigenous language of central Mexico). Every little valley in Mexico has its own unique varieties.

Depends on what you mean by "spicy". If its just spicy as in use a lot of spices like nutmeg, turmeric etc. well it makes food a LOT more flavorful. You can experiment with different combinations to get different flavors.

If you mean spicy as in "hot" (capsaicin content)... some people just love that flavor, and I imagine a lot of Indian people do. But not universally...I'm not a big fan, although my cousins will eat raw green chilies without batting an eye. I've always wondered how its possible...perhaps some taste buds are not very receptive so you get a better kick out of it?

Another theory I've heard was that food was scarce in India so the food would be made hot because you feel fuller after eating less (or are discouraged from eating too much). Not sure if its an accurate theory though...

> I've always wondered how its possible...perhaps some taste buds are not very receptive so you get a better kick out of it?

Merely practice! I started growing a variety of hot peppers and within the year I was nibbling on Carolina Reapers. They still feel as potent, but I'm just able to grin and bear it if that makes sense?

Interesting how many different explanations you're getting. People also seem to be tripped up by your use of "spicy."

In the US (to my knowledge), "spicy" is generally meant as "hot spicy." To describe something that has many spices but is not "hot spicy," people just say something is "full of spices."

As another commenter said, and as I learned it long ago: Spicy food makes you sweat. As the sweat evaporates, it requires additional energy to go from liquid to vapor. It gets that energy from the surface of the skin in the form of heat, thus cooling the body.

You don't feel so hungry in hot climates, so it stimulates digestion a bit.

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