I love chille and hot curries, but as I only eat them intermittedly cannot take the really hot ones. How long would it take to build up an immunity and how long would it last? Would I change my other taste buds, and what is actually happening in the process? I presume I am killing off my nerve endings in my mouth?
Every human starts life with lots more taste buds than a mature adult has. The ones that aren’t on the tongue go away, whether the child eats salsa or cream of mushroom soup.
Adaptation to fiery foods is more a change of attitude than a dying of nerve receptors. You learn to concentrate on the subtlety of flavors while your mouth works through the heat experience. You learn to adjust your alarm and fear levels. Once your mind accepts that chili heat won’t kill you, you can go right to the endorphins without bothering with the adrenaline.
That, and, stick to an acidic beverage to wash down the alkaloid chilis.
I read recently that ice climbers will plunge their hands into buckets of ice water to “teach” their bodies how to cope with extreme cold in the hands. Eventually the body reacts to the cold, but I don’t remember how. (opening the capillaries to allow increased the clow of warm blood? I don’t know; I’m not an ice climber.)
I suppose that eating chilis on a regular basis would teach the body how to cope with them. I used to love hot, hot foods. But my eating habits have changed and I eat a larger variety, most of which are not hot. Still, I find some salsa very bland whereas a co-worker (ironically of Mexican descent) says “It really has a kick!” So I think that eating chilis regularly (on in my case nowadays, somewhat often) will help to build a tolerance (or appreciation, rather, for the flavour they impart) to hot chilis.
Incidentally, I’ve found a great combination for breakfast burritos: medium-hot salsa and Vegemite. Yum!
Now that’s just sick. 
I love spicy food, and go through a lot of peppers. I think AskNott has it right. About 7 years ago, I never had a habanero but when I did, it kicked my ass, took my name and started calling me in the middle of the night to mock me. But I was hooked. Now, if I eat a whole pepper, it will still kick my ass, so I may only eat half of one, so the flavor balances with the heat. I don’t think it is an adaption to the heat, as much as it is a craving for the flavors that you can’t get anywhere else, with the heat being a bonus, and some people can’t get enough heat. Some defective people don’t like spicy food at all, and never will.
Working with peppers is art. Anybody can make hot wings or a bowl of chili that will melt a spoon. The trick is making something hot, with lots of flavor, and still being able to taste the food. Good food isn’t just good eating. It should be an experience. Being able to taste all of the flavors while feeling a good burn is a wonderful thing. Some people can’t get past the initial burn though and think that it covers up the food. Concentrate grasshopper! Be one with the Jerk Chicken!
And if you tie into a bowl of chili that is tougher than you, pour in a little cream or milk. In some areas that might get you lynched, but some people put A1 on a steak and get away with it:)
Go to the store and get a variety of chilis, and taste small amounts of each. You might find one you really like, which will help. I love habaneros and have even put them on ice cream, but I detest jalapenos. Their flavor makes the heat intolerable. There is no enjoyment in them. Turn them into chipotles though, and I’m first in line.
I should clarify that the burrito also has egg, potato, bacon, ham, sausage and cheese. Not bad for $2.75. And better with salsa and Vegemite.
That is disgusting!! A breakfast burrito should contain extra-hot salsa and vegemite! Yum-Yum!
Marmite will do in a pinch too.
Hey AskNott,
This may be true; I really don’t know. However, capsaicin, the small molecule that makes chilis hot, can kill primary sensory nociceptors (nerves that relay painful sensations).
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12418083&dopt=Abstract
When taken in lower doses, capsaicin merely depletes the endings of said nociceptors of the chemicals (termed “neurotransmitters”) that relay the painful message. It may take a while for these chemicals to once again be synthesized. This is termed “desensitization.”
Here’s a simple study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1881981&dopt=Abstract
Capsaicin-mediated nociceptor desensitization also reduces the pain experienced due to other noxious chemical stimuli. Therefore, capsaicin analogs are being investigated as treatments for the pain associated with various disorders: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10870746&dopt=Abstract
-Apoptosis
I live in New Mexico where we spell it CHILE. Chile is something of a religion in these parts. I’ve lived here for 12 years, but it took me about 5 or 6 before I could stand chile, and now, I love it, even crave it. I never really tried to acclimate, I just got used to it. It’s hard to avoid chile around here. I used to work in an Italian restaurant, and we served green chile upon request. Some New Mexicans can’t eat a meal without green chile, I’m a red man myself.
I have not noticed any change in my appreciation for other flavors, I just got used to the spicy stuff.
I could not agree more. I used to joke that you can order in some New Mexican restaurants by texture, because the chile masked all the flavor. You could have soft and painfully spicy, crunchy and painfully spicy, chewy and painfully spicy, etc.
may the heat be with you 
I tend to think with aptosis that one may be doing some nerve engineering in the mouth, but agree that it is also be fear as well. I also must learn to spell - chille indeed!
Don’t belive me? Click here
It’s not your mouth that’ll most need acclimation to increased ingestion of chiles.
It’s spelt “Chili”/put it seems chilli/chily/chile is quite common too.
Start eating mild curries and soon you will find that you build up tolerance to the heat and then you can move on to medium and hot curries.
How do habaneros taste, compared to jalapenos?
I only seem to find jalapenos and the tiny Thai red chillies in the supermarket.
Why bother with a long costly building up of an immunity? Just do what I did, and chug a bottle of something called Suicide Sauce. After that, just about everything is childs play.
Not in this part of the country. Round here, “chile” refers to the fruit, whether as red or green, and derivative products. “Chili” is the Tex-Mex meat and beans creation.
why hurry? you already said you like chilli and hot curry, take your time and enjoy all of them, for very soon you might lose interest in the ‘mild’ ones…
asterion I find habaneros a bit sweet, and they taste like something in between a carrot and a peach, with a lot less pepper flavor, like a jalapeno has. You know, that bitterish, bell pepper type of flavor. They go great with everything, but especially fruits. I make a mean mango salsa with them. I have no sense of smell, but apparantly the aroma is almost identical to apricots. My wife loves the smell of them when cooking.
Look around for dried ones, or even try ordering them. The dried ones lose their aroma, but none of the flavor or heat.
If you don’t have any luck, drop me an email. Be happy to send you a bag of them.
istara that is. asterion is in pepper country and doesn’t need help with peppers.
WEW has it right.
After I moved to New Mexico for my first out-of-college job, I built up an immunity to chile, and hot foods in general. As I lived there longer, I found the taste just as hot as when I first arrived, only I could tolerate it more.
Last week, I was in Las Cruces, the chile capital of the US. The Mexican food isn’t gringoed down in the least. Yes, the chili served there was very hot compared to what you would find in the rest of the country, or even the rest of the state, but my tolerance was still there.