Healing with Food Article

Chiles

Accompanying recipe: Chicken Soup with Roasted Jalapeno Chiles

Chiles do more than heat up recipes—they also add flavor and complexity. Like salt, they make other ingredients taste better.  They're the world's most highly consumed spice thanks to a single gene, the fiery and to be respected, capsaicin.

It's a lack of this capsaicin that keeps sweet peppers cool. And it's a high percentage of this alkaloid that makes a habanero flame. While the fire-quotient can range dramatically from one habanero to the next, as from one chili variety to another, there's a general guide for determining heat.

A chili with broad shoulders at the stem and rounded or box-like at the blossom end is milder than one with narrow shoulders and a pointed end. On a chili heat scale from mild to intolerable, jalapenos are a mid-range chili with aji, Scotch bonnets and habaneros boasting the greatest heat.

Chilies may literally burn the skin, especially the eyes, nose, lips, and even the gastro-intestinal tract. Nearly 90 percent of their capsaisin is concentrated in the white, placental tissues to which the seeds are attached. One way to moderate the flame, is to exclude or include these membranes in your cooking.

But, consider the following instant. One bite into a chili and your single desire is to douse the blaze. What do you reach for? Some people say dairy soothes, some say bread or rice and others claim that sweet is a chile antidote.

To determine the most effective remedy, let's examine capsaicin. It's a fast-acting vasodilator that—upon contact—widens our blood vessels. Thus, ingest a smidgen of jalapeno and almost instantly capsaisin is in the blood stream. Imagine holding a chunk of carrot or bread in your mouth for a minute. Not much happens as few whole foods are fast acting.

So, to find our remedy, let's consider slow-acting foods. Fats and oil are the slowest foods to assimilate, second only to meat. Additionally, oil quickly coats the mouth and thus retards chili absorption. While we can't recall the fire that's already surging through our blood, we can slow down the entry of more.

The most effective flame tamer, therefore, would be a gulp of oil. Or, a fatty, soft food such as cream cheese, yogurt, refried beans, or guacamole because you can quickly swirl it around your mouth to retard capsaisin uptake. If such foods aren't at hand then any solid food, like bread or rice, will help but take longer to coat the mouth. I'd pass on sugary foods as sugar is quickly absorbed.

However, if there's not a glug of oil nearby, don't despair. Capsaisin dilates our blood vessels triggering an increase in blood circulation. This causes a rise in body temperature. A quick temperature jump triggers perspiration that cools us back down. So give it a minute, relief is moments away.

The accompanying Chicken Soup uses a roasted jalapeno for heat and flavor.

May you be well nourished,

Rebecca Wood