The best way to cool your mouth after spicy food

Peppers can be delicious, but if you’re unlucky and eat that one super hot pepper, you might have to stop eating and start crying immediately. Eating something too spicy is one of those moments that feels like an out-of-body experience, as if you could actually die without being able to move your aching mouth enough to utter your final words.

There are many myths about spicy food and how to manage those terrible moments. Many people mention beer, sugar, soda and water, but if the level of spiciness is real, all these pseudo-recipes will only spread the pain. The Takeout interviewed various experts from companies that sell peppers and hot sauces, and most of them said that fatty foods are the best way to cool down.

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The Hippy Seed Company says:

Capsaicin is an oil. So when you drink a sip of milk, the oil binds to the fats and dissolves. Depending on how much you burn, you may need to sip for a while. Water, beer, or soft drinks will not help but can spread the oil around your mouth, making the burn worse. If you are lactose intolerant and don’t eat dairy products, soy milk is perfect.

The guys behind Heat Hot Sauce in Berkeley, California, agree, claiming that fatty foods, particularly milk, work for two reasons: “Scientifically, there are two reasons why milk works well. One of these is fat content – ​​capsaicin is soluble in fat but not water, so it can bind to milk fat. The other is casein, a milk protein that has a cleansing effect and releases capsaicin from your heat receptors.”

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Ice cream and yogurt are even better options than milk. So if you eat something spicy, stick with dessert and you’ll feel much better. According to celebrity chef Rick Bayless, time is the true cure for a spicy mouth. He claims that while eating ice cream or yogurt helps to some extent, it mostly distracts you until the burning goes away, which it always does.