It is believed that eating bitter strengthens willpower in Japan. There is also the satisfaction of accomplishing the difficult. In dozens of hot pepper festivals that take place every year around the world, participants compete to eat the best. The winner is given adjectives such as the bravest, the strongest.
Let’s come to the psychological dimension of hot pepper. When experts were examining why we are suffering, they looked at events that we were instinctively programmed to stay away from. And they realized that only we humans enjoy activities that create negative feelings. Like taking a high-speed train in an amusement park and falling out of control or watching a horror movie… They call this situation “harmless masochism”. It’s harmless because we know the result will not actually be negative or bad. While our bodies are signaling danger, our minds calm things down. “Enjoy this temporary situation, there is no danger in the end,” he says. In a sense, we flirt with our limits. When it comes to eating with bitterness, over time we start eating out of pain, not despite the pain.
