Why do mexicans like spicy foods?

Question

I'm part Mexican and the only food I mostly reach for is spicy foods. I eat alot of takis and chili powdered snacks, spray chips and fruits with different kinds of salsa with lemon and chamoy. I always crave them, but I'm worried that I'll get ulcers if I keep eating too much. Do i like spicy food because it's naturally part of my Mexican blood and can handle the heat?

Answer 1

Culture. Native spices available to use. to sweat as sweat cools you. to keep fly's of the food. rice & tapioca. Both leave a starch in the mouth so the food is not so hot when ate. Mexican food is medium in heat. Try some of the hot food in Asia for heat.

Answer 2

People grow up with different foods, and become accustomed to differ flavors and spice levels. My mother cooked without much seasonings, and never made anything with "heat" from spicy seasonings. Lots of cultures have hot foods, not just Mexican food. And chilies and peppers are becoming more popular as ethic foods become more widespread.

Answer 3

to spice it up, the flavour

Answer 4

Liking spicy food is not genetic. It's a matter of what you grow up eating which makes you used to more spicy food than someone else.

Answer 5

If you that's what you grew up eating then that's why. I went to mexico when i was 19 and they eat very natural food it's not overly seasoned or preserved like it is up here. Also my ex's brother was mexican and he couldn't even eat spicy ramen noodles.

Answer 6

People eat the foods that are around them.Mexicans eat hot foods because it grows in Mexico.You can cut out the processed foods and just eat fresh spicy foods found in nature. I love Mexican food !

Answer 7

This is probably mostly cultural but also could be partly biological.



If you grew up eating spicy - you will gravitate toward the familiar. This is normal and natural human behavior.



There is also a biological factor in some food preferences and abilities to digest - especially related to culturally prevalent fermented foods.



“Mexican” food is actually incredibly diverse and influenced by South American cuisine from before Europeans came and then also by the various European cuisines that have been introduced to South America by Europeans. Diane Kennedy is pretty much considered the queen of mexican cuisine and has studied and written about this for many decades.

Answer 8

Its what you grew up with.

Answer 9

go to KC for lunch

Answer 10

That's BS, I'm Polish and I like spicy foods too. It's about the individual, not BS stereotypes.

Answer 11

Why do billions of people all over the world like spicy foods. Spice makes food interesting.

Answer 12

We prefer to eat whatever we were raised eating.

And the spicy foods eaten in hot climates help us sweat (which is how our body cools itself off).

Answer 13

Chili is native to Mexico

Answer 14

People from hot tropical countries have lots of spice in their food as a general rule. For example people from India, south east Asia are similar. People from Middle East too gas some spice. It's because spices were originally used to preserve food in the hot climate before refrigerators were invented.



Over time it became part of their cuisine and people developed taste for it.

Answer 15

I’m not too sure probably because of the foods we’ve grown up with were spicy so it makes sense why we want it, I’m full Mexican I can’t handle spicy foods but I would crave it once in awhile