Will Spicy Food Kill My Taste Buds?

Posting Date: 11/08/2000

Rob: Will eating spicy, hot food now burnout my taste buds when I'm older?

Dr. Dean: No, because it is the pain fibers on the tongue, not the taste buds, that respond to spicy food. Why we like pain on our tongues is anyone's guess.

Some people claim that capsaicin, which is the main ingredient in a lot of spicy foods, relieves everything from arthritis, to migraines, to psoriasis.

I think spice was originally used as a food preservative, because germs don't like spice. So spices were a means of keeping food bacteria-free.

So far no evidence of damage from spicy food exists; it doesn't even aggravate ulcers as we used to think.

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