Spicy food never affects my gut and everyone thinks it's really weird. How unusual is this and what could be happening to explain why spicy food doesn't affect me?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

I absolutely love spicy food, and it’s never affected my gut. I was actually confused when I read about people getting the shits after a curry and wondered if it was a joke. I’ve had curries so hot it caused people to recoil into a coughing and sweating fit after they dipped their finger in and had a taste and I have one every other day. I feel the burning in my mouth, my face turns red, my forehead sweats, my esophagus feels weird, but (tmi I know lol) when I go to the toilet I’m completely fine. no gut pains either.

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Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Spicy food never has an effect on me once it’s done burning my mouth.

Maybe there were a few times that it felt a little spicy coming out, but that’s very rare.

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- LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Yeah I’ve never had issues with spicy foods causing anything but mouth feels and I’ve tried sauces like the last dab (not often but I tried their nugget w/ 3 sauces they had in the freezer section)
  
  I get heart burn more from sugary shit it seems.
  
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JigglySackles@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’m the same as you. No issues at all. Wasn’t till maybe 5 years ago I even got a minor tingle on my butthole.

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Septimaeus@infosec.pub ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Most of the gastrointestinal distress from capsaicin is the result of poison countermeasures triggered by contact pain signals.

But capsaicin is telling your cells a lie which fewer believe each re-telling, so it requires increasingly ridiculous doses to trigger those internal signals.

If you eat spicy food regularly, you likely won’t get any internal signals again until you graduate to a different category of spiciness, such as extracts.

Hot sauce nerds consider extracts cheating, since you can achieve heat that’s many orders of magnitude above what the hottest pepper hybrids can produce, but do what you must to feel alive.

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- Septimaeus@infosec.pub ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Oh, and in case you’re looking for recommendations, my current daily driver is Blair’s “Ultra Death.”
  
  To set expectations, Tobasco (a common North American vinegar-based chili sauce) has a heat rating of 7,000 scovilles, whereas Ultra Death generally measures over 1 million.
  
  If you like heat, extracts are a cost-effective step up, since each bottle lasts longer. At first anyway.
  
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Jayb151@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’ve found that as I get older, my guy is more affected by got stuff with seeds. The more seeds, the more irritated my belly gets.

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spacemanspiffy@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Acidic foods effect my belly more. Tons of tomato sauce, for example, and I get some acid reflux.

But spicy? Bring it on.

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- RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  All about acid and volume. Too much of anything and there’s no where else to go.
  
  Spicy is just for the taste buds, and reallllllly spicy comes with a bonus reminder the next day.
  
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  - KuroiKaze@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Well I think what the op and myself would tell you is that we don’t experience any bonus.
    
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southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
There’s a few factors.

First is genetics. Not everyone has the same base level reaction to peppers and/or capsaicin. And it can be either of them causing intestinal rebellion. Some people just don’t respond well to even sweet peppers.

Second is habitation. The more spicy stuff you eat in general, the more your body adapts to it.

But, there’s also variances in mucosa. Our guts, the colon in specific, opportunists produce snot. It’s essentially the same as what coats your throat and sinuses. Not exactly the same, but the same basic ingredients and purpose. Separate from how you respond to the food, and how used to it you are, some people produce more than others.

In your case, I suspect that you have a higher resistance genetically, and produce mucous in your gut that protects you from the irritants that spicy foods have.

If you also have a healthy gut biome going, it’ll add a layer of resistance to things being over stimulated.

And that’s what causes the diarrhea and cramping for most people. The chemicals irritate tissues, so your body treats or like an emergency. That means to increase bowel motility and flush the guts with water. Which means squiiirt.

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Nemo@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I share this blessing. I’m still confused by how exactly people are tasting how spicy their precious meal was when it’s on the way back out.

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- Libra@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I used to live in New Mexico for a while and there was a common joke: how do you tell if someone is a native New Mexican? They keep a fire extinguisher in the bathroom.
  
  It’s not so much that you taste it on the way out, it’s that there’s undigested capsaicin that burns, uh, other mucus membranes on the way out. Fortunately not something that bothers me much either, but I get hints of it sometimes when my niece makes what I call her nuclear fire curry.
  
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- adespoton@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Most people have taste receptors in their gut as well as on their tongue. It helps regulate how quickly your muscles contract to move stuff along through your intestine.
  
  Some people don’t have as many, and some people build up a tolerance to capsaicin (in both their mouth and gut).
  
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  - Dojan@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Capsaicin trigger nociceptors, tricking the brain into believing you’ve hurt yourself. It’s not a flavour.
    
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- Alexstarfire@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  The uhh, simplified version, is that the way out has the same reciptors as the way in when it comes to spiciness.
  
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cabron_offsets@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Was very happy to eat spicy foods until mid-late 40s, when I had to moderate because something just spontaneously switched as I got older and now my GI tract is unhappy if I eat a vindaloo, godfuckingdamnit.

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- grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I’m worried this is happening to me right now. I’m in my mid-40s and lately the day after all the spicy foods I usually consume have not been pleasant. Is there no fix for this??
  
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  - cabron_offsets@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Sucks bro. I mean, I can still tolerate what most people consider to be spicy food. At least “white guy” spicy. But no, I can’t eat the same kind of spicy food that I used to enjoy. It’s just a natural thing as you get older. This is a well known phenomenon. No fix.
    
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neidu3@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I use obscene amounts of Tabasco. The only thing it does to my gut is that my stomach can become a bit too acidic.

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- cheese_greater@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  What were things like for you pre-tabasco?
  
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  - Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    How do you expect them to remember being in the womb?
    
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- Willy@sh.itjust.works ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I mean tobasco is a vinegar sauce so the acidity thing make sense. Btw they have a family reserve version where they use fancier vinegar. It’s good too.
  
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  - neidu3@sh.itjust.works ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I’ve started rolling my own inspired by (but nowhere close to) Tabasco. The main aim was to make it less acidic.
    
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zaphodb2002@sh.itjust.works ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I love spicy foods and they don’t upset my stomach. Though I did eat one of those “one chip challenge” things back in the day and I did fine at the time but the next two days or so I felt like I had been poisoned. Only time that ever happened to me. You probably have a threshold too but it’s just very high. Genetics and practice helps, your gut biome critters are probably used to it too.

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Etterra@discuss.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
As somebody who’s stomach is SEVERELY affected by spicy food, I suspect that you’re just a statistical outlier, like myself. Don’t sweat it. Instead, lean in. Be the “I can eat anything spicy and be fine” guy amongst your friends.

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megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
So like, I think it’s less to do with spiciness, and more to do with certain ingredients that people’s bodies aren’t used to, or even might have a negative reaction to.

Might also be that spicyness essentially is lowering the threshold that heat sensing nerves fire at till it’s below ambient body temperature, maybe, if someone not used to hot food it tricks the intestines in to thinking they’ve been burnt and releasing water as a sort of wound response? Maybe? IDK.

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- howrar@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Anyone want to take a capsaicin pill for science?
  
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- acockworkorange@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Nope. It’s definitely the piquancy.
  
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Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I was unbothered by it as well, at least intestinally, the physical pain of something hot enough was certainly something I could experience and dislike at the extreme end but my stomach and bowels would have been fine. That it until about the past 5 years or so when my stomach suddenly decided it couldn’t handle all kind of things that were never a problem before and now I totally get what people were talking about. It’s pretty sad, I miss being able to reliably tolerate highly spicy food.

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remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
It supposed to affect your gut?

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undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Boring ass comment, but same. I’m 36 and can’t stop eating spicy foods.

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ikidd@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I have this talent as well; I use sriracha instead of ketchup on my burger and fries, with hot peppers.

But let me warn you, do not think this holds true when you have hemorrhoids. It will put you in a different universe of pain.

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LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I only ever hear that in movies. I assumed it happens if you eat low grade meat or smth like in the wild west in the US back in the day and it just became an old wives’ tale turned pop culture myth.

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Today@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I’ve heard people say that things are spicy on the way out but i don’t really understand what that means. Spicy doesn’t bother me, but greasy, smoky, and dairy kill my stomach.

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- Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Your anus can feel capsaicin. It’s not 100% of the time for me, but sometimes after eating a spicy meal, the next poop burns like a mofo.
  
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  - pleasestopasking@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Probably depends a fair but on what else you eat with it. Like how drinking water doesn’t help but milk does.
    
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- Longpork3@lemmy.nz ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  This whole post is kind of confuaing me because you like everyone else here seems to be the complete opposite to me. If i eat spicy things, it is absolutely fine as far as my gut is concerned, no worries at all. Where is gets me is when I take a shit the next morning, and it comes out twice as spicy as it went in.
  
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Alexstarfire@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I couldn’t say how common it is, but I’m a bit jealous. I love spicy food but I definitely suffer the consequences. Not usually in the feeling it on the way out but in the irregular movements department.

And it’s not even about having something too spicy. Sometimes I eat something one day and I’m fine, but eat it a different day and and it wrecks me.

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Zenith@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Question: do vinegar based spicy sauces hurt?

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- KuroiKaze@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I’m not op but no they don’t do anything special. I love Carolina style spicy barbecue
  
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hedge_lord@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Same! A few days ago I consumed a very spicy hot pot meal. It was spicy enough that my eyes were watering uncontrollably and I might not have eaten it except that I do not have much money and I’d already paid for the thing (and there’s also my occasionally problematic waste aversion but I digress). In the days since I’ve been hoping to experience some toilet spice but it just hasn’t happened! I wonder if I’ll get to experience it if I get older?

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hark@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I felt the same until I had one of those challenge peanut things that add straight up capsaicin crystals. It made my tummy feel not so good when I had it on an empty stomach, but I never had the “spice burns twice” effect until I had malatang and I asked them to do a spice level above their written max level.

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Fingolfinz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Maybe you just have a healthy gut. It’ll get me usually but I’ve gotten in the habit of having some yogurt or kefir afterwards and that neutralizes things in my gut so it doesn’t burn on its way out

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Willy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
As others have said, it started around my mid thirty’s. That also happens to be when I started growing my own ghost peppers… hmm. There is a big difference between a few slugs of a hot sauce and something truly marinated in heat. I have had a few spicy chicken sandwiches that you have sign a waiver (marketing bs) that have had the effect, but were surprisingly not that bad going in. Anyway. Up your game if you can’t feel it yet. If your mouth can still feel anything, you’re not hot yet. You should reach beyond the sweat and start feeling a pleasant dizzy feeling and no feeling in your mouth anymore.

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bjorney@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I was like you, until my mid-30s hit

Now buffalo wings will have me waking up at 3am with acid reflux even though I didn’t even register spice while I was eating them 6 hours earlier

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Fizz@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Yeah I love spicy food and my body handles it like any other.

I think its one of those things where we have some gigachad gene that allows us to enjoy it like milk/dairy.

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cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Doesn’t affect me either, idk

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spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
For me, some spices that involve oils or the seeds can give my gut a punch. For example, I like jalapeños for flavor, but too much and my gut doesn’t like it. Hotter peppers use less of the pepper for spice, so they don’t crank up the digestion. Some other spices don’t have any effect whatsoever, like dried red pepper can make my mouth burn but never upset the stomach.

I think most of it is what your body is used to, as eating more hot stuff makes it a lot less likely for my stomach to revolt about the jalepenos. But if I take a month off I’m rolling the dice.

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Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Same. Unless there’s another thing eaten with it causing intestinal distress (lactose intolerance or especially greasy food), I’m fine.

I have legitimately gassed out my parents house with airborn capsaicin making salsa (also, don’t rinse out a cooking pot using steaming hot water, folks!) using some unusually potent habaneros and scorpion peppers. Great way to clear your sinuses, lingered for a couple days though

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- Witchfire@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  The other day I had some actually spicy Indian food, followed by two cups of chai. Delicious, but my lactose intolerance was the match that lit the fuse
  
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  - Alistaire@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    chai doesn’t always need milk in it
    
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starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It’s because you don’t drink as much as other people. People who chug a ton of of water or whatever after they’ve eaten something spicy are giving themselves diarrhea.

Sauce: a Taiwanese lady.

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- skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Capsacin is not soluble in water, so water and spicy food don’t really interact. Unless the water is contaminated, chugging water won’t do more than make you pee.
  
  The capsacin applying signals as if your bowels are literally on fire and your body reacting to it as if it’s poisonous will, though. Many people can apply the same trick they can apply when they get the shits from milk: just consume a decent amount of it every day and your body will get used to it eventually. Not recommended if you have roommates or a difficult to reach toilet, though.
  
  Of course it could be that standard Taiwanese drinking water is so contaminated that chugging it does give you mild food poisoning, but that doesn’t change the fact that people not eating large amounts of capsacin still get the shits when they eat spicy food.
  
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