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?

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.

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.

How old are you? I used to be like you. I still hold the spice tolerance. I recently ate a spicy chicken burger they made me sign a waiver for because of how spicy it is. My body handled it okay. While I didn't get diarrhea, my gut's complaining.

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.

Acidic foods effect my belly more. Tons of tomato sauce, for example, and I get some acid reflux.

But spicy? Bring it on.

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.

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.

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.

I use obscene amounts of Tabasco. The only thing it does to my gut is that my stomach can become a bit too acidic.

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.

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.

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.

Boring ass comment, but same. I’m 36 and can’t stop eating spicy foods.

It supposed to affect your gut?

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.

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.

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.

Question: do vinegar based spicy sauces hurt?

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?

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

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.

Easiest fix: on’t be white.

Second easiest fix: hang out around non white people.

But seriously though all my white friends who never grew up eating spicy food had problems with spicy food at first. After years of being around people who eat spicy food they’ve gotten used to it.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Spicy food never had an effect on my stomach until one day in my late 30's. Now there's a fuzzy threshold where I'm OK, but there's a limit. A whole serving of my favorite bulgogi is always too much.

Ill have issues with super super spicy peppers or hot sauce. But generally I have to actively seek out something that spicy. Just some ghost pepper hot sauce won't do much to my system even if its spicy going down. Carolina reapers will do it.

Growing my own scorpion peppers this year. Never had a truly fresh one before.

Doesn't affect me either, idk

So like ... Can you keep eating even more spicy food until it does affect your suggestion and then let us know how spicy you had to go?

Even tabasco turns my arse into a fire dragon after its done burning my mouth, so count your blessings!

I guess I'm a spice boss because I can eat whatever I want, with nothing but spicy-ass occasionally.

1. How old are you
2. What kind of spice are you talking about?