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Moment Of Um

Why are spicy foods spicy?

Moment Of Um

Lemonada Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.41.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2024

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Lots of people love spicy food for that tongue-tingling feeling. But where does it come from? What’s happening in our mouths when we bite down on a jalapeño or chili flake? We asked taste and smell researcher Arthur Zimmerman to help us find the answer. Got a tasteful question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll spice up your life with the answer! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

From the brains behind brains on, this is the Moment of Um.

0:08.0

Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm your Tong. People are always asking me,

0:18.1

Tong, how do you juggle everything? You're so busy. And it's true, I do a lot

0:24.4

every day. I form words and sounds in your mouth so you can go la la la and I help you make silly faces.

0:34.7

I'm essential for eating. I mean, hello, good luck chewing and swallowing your food without me.

0:41.0

And of course, I am responsible for detecting all those delicious flavors that you love.

0:47.2

So, how do I make it through my busy day? I got to tell you, the thing that really jazes me up

0:53.9

is spice. I just love the tingle that

0:57.4

comes from foods like chili peppers. Okay, sure. Sometimes maybe there's a little too much spice and

1:04.0

oh boy, it's uncomfortable for a minute. But then the feeling fades and there's just a warm glow

1:10.7

all over my taste buds.

1:12.7

Fabulous.

1:14.1

Now I'm totally craving that spicy sizzle.

1:17.8

How do I find it?

1:19.2

It's just like Julian was asking.

1:22.0

I'm Julian, and I'm from Delaware.

1:26.0

And my question is, what makes spicy things spicy?

1:35.5

When we sense spiciness in our mouth, it's not actually our taste buds.

1:40.3

It is the nerves that are reaching our tongue that then send direct signals back to our brain.

1:47.5

Hi, my name is Arthur Zimmerman, and I study smell and taste. So whenever we bite into something that we

1:54.8

think is spicy, there's actually the sensors on nerves that will interact with the foods in our mouth.

2:03.1

Then these receptors are similar to what you would have on your skin to detect different

...

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