Jalapeño

A jalapeño tricks your mouth into feeling heat that is not there.

What makes a jalapeño hot

Jalapeños contain a compound called capsaicin. A compound is a substance made of two or more elements joined together.

Your mouth has nerve endings with tiny sensors that detect real heat, like a hot drink. Capsaicin attaches to those same sensors and switches them on. Your nerves send a heat signal to your brain, and your brain reacts as if your mouth is burning, even though nothing in your mouth is hot.

Most of the capsaicin is in the white ribs inside the pepper, where the seeds attach. The seeds pick up some of the heat from touching those ribs.

Why water does not help

Capsaicin dissolves in fat, not in water. So drinking water only moves the capsaicin around your mouth. Milk, yogurt, or another food with fat in it pulls the capsaicin away from your mouth and cools the burn faster.

Capsaicin also stays on your hands after cutting jalapeños. So washing well, and not touching your eyes, saves you from feeling that heat somewhere else on your body.

Jalapeños and sweet peppers

Jalapeños and many sweet peppers are the same species of plant. Sweet peppers carry a difference in their genes that stops them from making capsaicin. A sweet pepper is a pepper without the heat trick.

How I eat jalapeños

I cook my beans in the crockpot with a lot of jalapeños, along with onion, garlic, and salt. The long, overnight cooking spreads the jalapeño flavor through the whole pot.

You are welcome to eat food that surprises your body.

Stacy 🌺

Information in this post comes from my learning and research.

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I share my experiences and my perspective. Eating and healing look different for everyone. If you are struggling with food or your relationship with your body, please find support. You don’t have to do this alone.