Reader Post: Spicy Food

This post was submitted by reader Josh Vogel. Please submit ideas for posts to metaist.blog@gmail.com.

Commentary
Many of us enjoy spicy food. At the same time, many of us really don't like spicy food. According to an article in The New York Times, there may be more of a personality trait to this than one might have originally thought. Additionally, the fact that any human being likes spicy food might say a lot about the evolution of our species.

Not to be confused with the spice.
(Photo: Will Clayton at Flickr)

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania say that our enjoyment (or non-enjoyment) of spicy food might have to with the unique human capability of getting pleasure out of painful experiences: "Humans and only humans get to enjoy events that are innately negative, that produce emotions or feelings that we are programmed to avoid when we come to realize that they are actually not threats," said Dr. Paul Rozin of University of Pennsylvania, who calls this trait "benign masochism". After all, we are the only animal that likes spicy food, as evidenced by the inclusion of Capsaicin (the chemical compound that makes chilies spicy) in many animal repellents.

What this might say about people who do and do not like spicy food is not covered by the article, but it doesn't take too much thinking to see if people who like spicy foods are also ones who have a high tolerance for pain.

Josh Vogel is a Candidate for the Master of Public Health at Boston University School of Public Health.

See Also

• A Perk of Our Evolution: Pleasure in Pain of Chilies at The New York Times for the article.
• Food for Thought: Paul Rozin's Research and Teaching at Penn for a lengthy interview with Paul Rozin from 1997 where he discusses many of the aspects of his research.

Commentary text licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Additional editing by The Metaist.

Reader Question: How is yogurt made?

This post is a response to a reader question. Please submit suggestions for posts to metaist.blog@gmail.com. Not all questions will be answered.

Question
An anonymous six-year-old child of a reader asks: How is yogurt made?

If you look carefully, you can see an ear, nose, and beard in the Rorschach ink blot.
(Photo: Wikimedia)

Summary (for an average six-year-old)
(Based on: Peanut Butter and Jelly)
First you take the milk and you heat it. (You heat it.)
Then you take the milk and you cool it. (You cool it.)
Then you take the bacteria and you add it. (You add it.)
Then it gets fermented. (Fermented.)
For your yogurt... white yogurt... and berries.

Explanation (for a smarter six-year-old)
Yogurt is based on the Turkish words for knead and thick although in some regions (e.g., Bulgaria) it is more like sour milk (which ambiguously refers to both milk that has soured and buttermilk).

The bacteria used in the fermentation process are Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus which convert the lactose into lactic acid (which is what builds up on your muscles when you exercise, but doesn't degrade performance as previously thought).

Aside from the that the first summary captures the essence of the process.

See Also

• Yogurt at Wikipedia for more information.
• On Yogurt and Jiu-Jitsu at Hulu for a discussion of the relationship between yogurt and spying.