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The spicy is not considered a taste of use but it is a key element in many gastronomies. You can draw attention to the fact that some of the countries with the greatest love of The spicy are among the warmer countries in the world, something contraintuitive if we attend to the main effect of this seasoning has a lot to do with The heat.
There are various types of spicy but we refer to a concrete one, The spicy food scorching containing capsaicin. Capsaicin is a molecule that occurs naturally in some plants of the genre Capsicumthe plants that give us all the variety of peppers, chillies, chiles or ñoras, although these fruits not always contain perceptible concentrations of this compound.
It is often considered that plants of this genre synthesize this compound as a defense mechanism to protect their fruits and with them their seeds. However today the human being cultivates different varieties of plants in order to control the Capsaicin concentrations And, with this, control the degree of itching that causes the fruit.
Very often this is done in order not to reduce the presence of the molecule but to create even more spicy varieties.
Exist Many hypotheses about why the fond of spicy and spices in certain countries closest to the tropics, although there are no scientific arguments that support any specific. For example, the idea that these condiments are used to avoid the proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms is practically discarded.
What we do know is that, under certain conditions, the spicy can help us reduce the temperature, by contradictory that seems. Capsaicin works activating nerve receptors in charge of letting us know for the sensation of burned. In other words, this compound deceives us by making us think that we are abrasing ourselves.
In that deception is the great utility of spicy foods With high temperatures: the sensation of heat can make us break to sweat when we eat the spicy, which makes it easier for our body to expel part of the heat that is accumulating. Something similar we can experience When we drink a hot drink when the thermometers indicate an increase in temperatures.
Of course, there is a “but”. Sweat is mostly water that transports part of our body heat outside our skin. Once there this water evaporates, taking the heat. But not always: in high humidity conditions, sweat takes to evaporate, which implies that the spicy or hot drinks only work when we do not exceed certain levels of humidity in the environment. It should also be remembered that sweat makes us lose water, so replenishing it is indispensable.
The food, an ally
It is not necessary to resort to spicy if what we want is to feed and face the high temperatures. Some meals they can help us reduce heat In our body and, above all, they can help us stay hydrated, something fundamental when heat squeezes.
In this sense, fruits can be especially useful. Fruits such as watermelon and melon can give us a significant amount of water when we consume them, but also do vegetables such as tomato, cucumber and lettuce.
Hot drinks can help us in some contexts but in general avoiding very hot food can be a good idea, especially if we have to cook at home, since this will imply that we will be generating residual heat in our own home, heat that can take time to fade if we do not ventilate with property.
The spicy, hot drinks and fresh fruit can be ways to maintain our thermal comfort in extreme circumstances but a heat wave requires that we take different measures to ensure our physical well -being and thus not take a scare.
Avoid high insolation hours or those in which the temperature reaches peaks, looking for the shadow, keeping us hydrated, and Avoid demanding activities On physical level as exercise are also precautions to take on days like those we are living during this heat wave.
In Xataka | Popular wisdom is not always right: the great myths of heat that we should avoid in summer
Image | Qurratul Ayin Sadia / Alvin
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