Love Of Spicy Food Is Built Into Your Personality
Chili Peppers via FlickrLove of spicy food isn't just desensitization, or cultural upbringing--it also has ties to who you are. When I was a kid, I'd watch in awe as my dad ate dinner. It wasn't just the heaps of food piled on his plate that impressed me. (The words "portion control" had yet to enter the public lexicon.) What always made me shake my head in disbelief was his curious habit of alternating bites of his meal with bites off a jalapeno pepper. To save time, he'd simply hold the pepper in one hand and his utensil in the other. I should also mention that my heritage is Indian, and that my mom served up traditional spicy dishes on a nightly basis. But it was never spicy enough for Dad. I'd always assumed that he'd just burned all the taste buds off his tongue, leaving him desensitized to the...