Are people who like spicy food sado masochistic?

I can be very eloquent and (I believe) quite convincing when speaking to another person, however I am less experienced and I definitely feel less comfortable when writing about a topic. This is my first medium piece — let’s see how it goes.

I love spicy food and a question I have often discussed at the dinner table is why some people enjoy eating spicy food and others don’t. Up until now I’ve normally said: that’s just because they’re used to it. However researchers have actually found that there is only slight desensitisation to spiciness due to frequent exposure to spicy food. And even if this weren’t true, the question remains: Is there a reason why some people repeatedly eat spicy food until finally, they get used to it?

The receptors on the tongue activated by spicy food are called polymodal nociceptors. They are activated through extreme heat or spicy food. Their activation (for whatever reason) leads to the cognitive experience of being burnt. This feeling is painful and thus I argue that eating spicy food is painful. Interestingly people’s ratings of the feeling of being burnt when eating spicy food are independent of whether they actually like to eat spicy or not. So, why would people repeatedly and voluntarily eat spicy food? There needs to be something about it that they enjoy and accordingly psychologists have found that pain can sometimes be considered as being thrilling — which is a neutral concept and simply refers to something that produces sudden, strong and deep emotion or excitement. So yes, people who like spicy food enjoy the feeling of pain. Not sure if I really do…

The formulation of the conclusion is quite generalised and written by a European who grew up in an environment where spicy food wasn’t (and still isn’t) a normal thing to eat. The conclusion is meant to be provocative. Maybe it’ll heat up the next dinner discussion — I for one would enjoy some new input on this topic.

Note: This is based on the specific effects of capsaicin and thus only refers to a specific type of spiciness found in chilis, jalapeños and cayenne.