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Do men and women..

Nicole

Nicole

Do men and women matabolize spicy foods differently? I know that we differ when it comes to alcohol in that when women drink the alcohol doesnt break down and process through body, it absorbs straight to the blood... and for men it goes through their organs and what not and breaks down before entering the blood stream.

Something along those lines.. but I was wondering if we differ when it comes to hot foods? Does it effect us differently?

Let me know your thoughts!!

xo nicole
 
it actually has more to do with whether you system is more acid or more alkaline(i know i mispelled that!) the more acidic your system is the less burn time you'll supposedly have. i've also noticed in my younger days in resturaunts that women tend to crave acidic foods a lot so i suppose gender has some factor in it but it's more about how acidic your system is. but i'm no scientist it's just what i read.
 
It's hard to say.

The heat in chillies is produced by chemical compounds called capsaicinoids. These are alkaloid compounds that are produced by glands in the placenta of the fruit. Alkaloid has neither flavor nor color and is so robust that it can withstand prolonged periods of drying, freezing and heating without losing much of its original pungency. When pure capsaicin makes contact with the human skin it causes an excruciating burn.

The capsaicin found in chillies irritates the pain receptors in the mouth and nose. As soon as the brain receives the pain message it causes the release of chemical (substance P) to counteract the condition. Repeated stimulation of the pain receptors leads to a diminished sensitivity, which is why people who regularly eat chillies are far less subsceptible to chilli burns than those who don't.

It is a fallacy that men can tolerate hotter foods than women. The ability to withstand a chilli burn has little to do with gender, but depends largely on distribution of taste buds on a tongue. So I think that the effects are the same on both men and women.

I hope this helps answer your question, I'm not sure what happens beyond this stage.
 
SuperHot said:
It's hard to say.

The heat in chillies is produced by chemical compounds called capsaicinoids. These are alkaloid compounds that are produced by glands in the placenta of the fruit. Alkaloid has neither flavor nor color and is so robust that it can withstand prolonged periods of drying, freezing and heating without losing much of its original pungency. When pure capsaicin makes contact with the human skin it causes an excruciating burn.

The capsaicin found in chillies irritates the pain receptors in the mouth and nose. As soon as the brain receives the pain message it causes the release of chemical (substance P) to counteract the condition. Repeated stimulation of the pain receptors leads to a diminished sensitivity, which is why people who regularly eat chillies are far less subsceptible to chilli burns than those who don't.

It is a fallacy that men can tolerate hotter foods than women. The ability to withstand a chilli burn has little to do with gender, but depends largely on distribution of taste buds on a tongue. So I think that the effects are the same on both men and women.

I hope this helps answer your question, I'm not sure what happens beyond this stage.
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All of this makes sense, except that fact that men and women ARE anatomically different in more ways then just reproductive organs. I mean everything you said does make sense, but I am still convinced there has to be a difference because we are different.


AJ- it would be a great thesis! You should suggest it to the University as a topic of interest!
 
The only other thought that I have on this is, the chemical compounds called capsaicinoids in peppers are a crystal structure. I believe that the crystals pass through as they are. I completely understand where you are coming from and support your theory in most other cases. My first post was what everybody already knew about the superhots. There is a lot more going on inside the superhots than the capsaicinoids compounds which I'm trying to wrap by brain around. This could take a while. Right now at the moment, "Hot-in…Hot-out" kind of works for me.
 
haha cool... I wasnt saying you were wrong by any means, just asking your thoughts further on the matter :o)

Obviously none of us have done scientific tests in a controlled lab, I was just asking thoughts!!


xo nicole
 
I'd say its the same for both sexes as for how cap. is broken down in the mouth & body.
then its a matter of which sex has a higher tolerance to pain, then its a personal thing as for who can handle more heat(eats more HOT)
 
Well, it's known that women have a higher pain tolerance than men. But then we could argue the finer points - does the perception of pain from a pepper truly generate the same physiological responses by the body as is generated from "real" pain (ie - if "real" pain comes from something like a broken bone, knife wound, etc.)? We know that although we perceive a burning sensation from eating a hot pepper, we are not actually physically burned from it - no tissue is damaged as a result of eating a hot pepper. We do also know at least in part that some of the same physiological response does occur - hence, the endorphin rush that is experienced by some. But it also seems reasonable that since no tissue damage is experienced, there may be physiological responses that do not occur upon consuming a hot pepper that would occur in the instance of "real" pain.

So in my mind the question persists unanswered at this time. Maybe we should try an experiment or two of our own - does distraction, such as the focused distraction of the Lamaze technique during childbirth, make a difference in the heat/pain perception after consuming a hot pepper? And if this works for one sex, does it work for the other?
 
Good paper on the function of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin burns.

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/features/capsaicin.shtml

The perception that peppers are "hot" is not an accident. The capsaicin key opens a door in the cell membrane that allows calcium ions to flood into the cell. That ultimately triggers a pain signal that is transmitted to the next cell. When the cells are exposed to heat, the same events occur. Chile burns and heat burns are similar at the molecular, cellular, and sensory levels.
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Apparently women have more taste buds than men.
I haven't read it in an official research journal though
but it is in a book of "facts" that my 8 year old daughter has.
 
I always felt it was how you were raised. Growing up on the farm I ate anything I could get a fork in. Loved early on the rush of heat from a hot pepper. Kind of felt like that first kiss. Of all the people I've met I've seen hot heads being both male and female from everywhere on earth. While in South America ( home of the pepper ) met a native
born man who would break out in hives eating hot peppers. So really we are all hardwired different it's just happens my brain screams Capsicum.
 
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