Has Eating Spicy Food Dulled Your Taste Buds ?

[JimmyTheMook]

Is this true with any other people ?

Seldom do I eat western food anymore but when I do it just seems very bland and wonder if my taste buds have just been burned out.

[Moonrakers]

Smoking has killed my taste buds, i can barely even taste Thai food now.

[AmeriThai]

Is this true with any other people ?

Seldom do I eat western food anymore but when I do it just seems very bland and wonder if my taste buds have just been burned out.

Thai food is usually rich in flavor, which may be why western food seems rather bland in comparison.

[RakJungTorlae]

nar bro western food just taste crap here anyway. what I think is they add so much msg and oil to boots its flavor .. but then I just feel like death for a few hrs and need beer or something to snap me out of it.

but I got the chilli source ready when I do...

[Jingthing]

Well, I don't think this is a clear cut thing. Yes, eating heavily spiced/hot foods will change your palate. On the other hand, different people have a tendency to love heavily spiced/hot food, or not, and culture is but one of those factors. Who hasn't met Thais who hate spicy foods or westerners like me who can never get enough of it? So called super tasters generally do not like heavily spiced/hot foods, but to test the OP's premise such people would have to eat spicy/hot food for a long while and then see if they are no longer super tasters.

[AmeriThai]

Well, I don't think this is a clear cut thing. Yes, eating heavily spiced/hot foods will change your palate. On the other hand, different people have a tendency to love heavily spiced/hot food, or not, and culture is but one of those factors. Who hasn't met Thais who hate spicy foods or westerners like me who can never get enough of it? So called super tasters generally do not like heavily spiced/hot foods, but to test the OP's premise such people would have to eat spicy/hot food for a long while and then see if they are no longer super tasters.

I see what you mean and I agree that hot spices might do that. I was thinking more about Thai foods in general having a rich variety of flavors, much more than most western foods. From that standpoint, I'd still say western food is blander than Thai food. I don't mind food that's a little on the spicy hot side, but not thermonuclear. I know a number of people who don't like spicy hot foods. My wife on the other hand, likes it so hot you could start a fire with it.

Perhaps hot spicy food might dull the taste buds, but I'd guess if you get away from it for a while, you can start redeveloping a taste for western foods again. But like you're saying, some people can handle hot foods and some people can't. For what the OP is saying though, western foods are still going to be generally more "bland" in comparison to spicy Thai foods, any way you look at it. Although, Mexican foods can be pretty toasty on the tastebuds.

[geriatrickid]

Has Eating Spicy Food Dulled Your Taste Buds ?Maybe it has, but it sure as h*ll still burns on the way out.

[Jingthing]

Has Eating Spicy Food Dulled Your Taste Buds ?Maybe it has, but it sure as h*ll still burns on the way out.

Tolerance can be developed on both ends.

[PeaceBlondie]

In Jingthing's new poll, geriatric kid and I both list many Western foods that we find flavorful. Of course, potatoes are not, but you can add chives, cheese, chili meat, butter, etc., to a good baked potato. Rice is bland. TexMex can be just as hot as Thai (mole sauce, for example). If you do not over cook the veggies and have lots of variety, Western food has about 256 flavors. I thought I did not care about food until I listed the full menu for a typical American Thanksgiving dinner.

More on topic, I have just assumed that many Thais lose most of their taste buds by age four. Maybe I am mistaken. I asked several northern Thais last week and they all said they could not eat very spicy.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I don't think it's the heat so much, but that it's very salty and probably with a fair amount of MSG as well.

( So, just add salt & MSG to your western food and you'll be fine. )

[Wrong Turn]

Thai food is usually rich in flavor, which may be why western food seems rather bland in comparison.

Agreed. The OP may be experiencing a change in "taste perception."

[glyph]

Eating spicy food can destroy your sense of taste. Ever since I moved to Thailand, I listen to Michael Bolton.

[PoorSucker]

Taste also diminish with age.

[glyph]

That would certainly account for the appearance of a lot of Thai women and farang men pairing.

[sabaijai]

Well, I don't think this is a clear cut thing. Yes, eating heavily spiced/hot foods will change your palate. On the other hand, different people have a tendency to love heavily spiced/hot food, or not, and culture is but one of those factors. Who hasn't met Thais who hate spicy foods or westerners like me who can never get enough of it? So called super tasters generally do not like heavily spiced/hot foods, but to test the OP's premise such people would have to eat spicy/hot food for a long while and then see if they are no longer super tasters.

I beleive there have been studies of this nature, and the results have tended to disprove the common myth that eating spicy food dulls your taste buds.

To my mind, spiciness 'wakes up' the taste buds to receive more subtle flavours, once you're used to chile content.

[mizzi39]

Well, I don't think this is a clear cut thing. Yes, eating heavily spiced/hot foods will change your palate. On the other hand, different people have a tendency to love heavily spiced/hot food, or not, and culture is but one of those factors. Who hasn't met Thais who hate spicy foods or westerners like me who can never get enough of it? So called super tasters generally do not like heavily spiced/hot foods, but to test the OP's premise such people would have to eat spicy/hot food for a long while and then see if they are no longer super tasters.

I beleive there have been studies of this nature, and the results have tended to disprove the common myth that eating spicy food dulls your taste buds.

To my mind, spiciness 'wakes up' the taste buds to receive more subtle flavours, once you're used to chile content.

I agree. I think that spicy foods enhances your taste buds, and does not diminish them in anyway.

[kmart]

Eating spicy food can destroy your sense of taste. Ever since I moved to Thailand, I listen to Michael Bolton.

Seek professional counselling.

[thesunset75]

What happen to my off topic post last night,or it was in my dream ?

[onzestan]

No !!!!!

I don't eat very spicy foods, spices are either the enhance the natural taste of food items or to hide the natural taste.,

I prefer the natural taste augmented by a little bit of salt or pepper.

Just my 2 cents

cheers

onzestan

[JohnBanPrang]

What happen to my off topic post last night,or it was in my dream ?

May loo!!!!

I looooove when I can eat spicy.

Overlooking "thesunset"

My "taste buds" are fine.

So is my taste.

[thesunset75]

What happen to my off topic post last night,or it was in my dream ?

May loo!!!!

I looooove when I can eat spicy.

Overlooking "thesunset"

My "taste buds" are fine.

So is my taste.

Since im here and cook myself I like my spicy food add as much chilies as i want, and extra spicy here wont make me sweating much like BKK...blow the fire on the snow....If i dont cook i can eat most kind of western foods.

[JohnBanPrang]

What happen to my off topic post last night,or it was in my dream ?

May loo!!!!

I looooove when I can eat spicy.

Overlooking "thesunset"

My "taste buds" are fine.

So is my taste.

Since im here and cook myself I like my spicy food add as much chilies as i want, and extra spicy here wont make me sweating much like BKK...blow the fire on the snow....If i dont cook i can eat most kind of western foods.

Don't you love knom jin (hope i spell it right)

You can make it with Tunafish too.

Cheap in europe, and tastes good.

[thesunset75]

What happen to my off topic post last night,or it was in my dream ?

May loo!!!!

I looooove when I can eat spicy.

Overlooking "thesunset"

My "taste buds" are fine.

So is my taste.

Since im here and cook myself I like my spicy food add as much chilies as i want, and extra spicy here wont make me sweating much like BKK...blow the fire on the snow....If i dont cook i can eat most kind of western foods.

Don't you love knom jin (hope i spell it right) Yup its right but I spell Nom Jeen

You can make it with Tunafish too.

Cheap in europe, and tastes good.

I like it, my friend she is in Belgium always make that dish, we agreed to get together and COOKING show hahahaha.

Im only one person who eating spicy here so I dont like toomuch work.

[opebo]

No, not at all, even though I daily eat normally spicy 'Thai' food, and only occasionally get farang food.

I think one thing to keep in mind is how rare it is to find Western food of a decent quality in Thailand (its pretty hard to find back home even). If you can find good, well prepared stuff, it will probably still taste pretty good.

[Andrew Hicks]

Is this true with any other people ?

Seldom do I eat western food anymore but when I do it just seems very bland and wonder if my taste buds have just been burned out.

Yesterday my lovely placed upon my tongue a tiny morsel of som tam whereupon I ran out screamimg into the street.

Thai food is sometimes not just hot. It's volcanic!

And with an afterburn of ten on the rictus scale!

If you walk daily barefoot on burning coals you tend to get callouses on your soles. Likewise I'm sure that if you can manage to ingest the hotter of Thai foods, then you won't be able to taste much else. All other food becomes mai arroy.

I'm sure that the Thais around me here in Surin can hardly taste anything unless it's nuclear.