Proving Prowess Through Spicy Food

LONDON, Oct. 20, 2006— -- Did you know that men lie about the amount of hot and spicy food they eat? Five million men in Britain hold bragging rights to how much spicy food they can tolerate, all to impress their dates and girlfriends.

That's according to Domino's Pizza, which recently commissioned research on this.

Why do men exaggerate and lie about something like this? Is it a male chauvinistic, competitive streak or an automatic reflex that kicks in when a large amount of alcohol requires the hottest chili curry on the menu?

Curious, I visited a popular curry house in the Hammersmith area of London to find out, interviewing diners who ranged in age from 18 to 30.

Twenty-two-year old Jon was out and about with a group of his friends after they'd all had drinks. "I think it's the lad thing when you go out with your mates and have a few jars and then go off for a steaming curry -- the hotter the better," he said. "Besides, you're all tanked up, and you're with your mates, and you gotta impress them!"

His friends agree. Clearly intoxicated, they say it's the need to prove your prowess or manliness that is practically endemic to British culture. "A guy has to be seen to show off to his friends, and if he can't do that with an expensive car or a nice house, then the thing to do, it seems, is to eat the hottest chilies in front of his friends that are available during a meal," sais Ken.

However, Chris and wife Jenny, also at the restaurant, disagreed. "I think it's OK to consume hot food, but it shouldn't become a competitive sport. Youngsters these days feel everything should be consumed in vast quantities without disregard for their health," Chris said.

His wife nods in silent agreement when I ask her whether she allows her husband to eat a hot curry. "I do", she said, "but only once in a while, and then he sleeps in the spare room!"

So lets take a step back here. How did the chilies make their way to Britain, to our restaurants, market stalls and supermarkets to feed our near-masochistic nature?

Importer and grocer Pete, who does not want to reveal his last name, runs a chili Web site and a chili farm. He grows and sells the hot-table condiments to anyone willing to partake, both online and at the market stall. Pete's Web site, ChilliPepperPete.com, boasts a selection of the world's hottest and mildest chilies known to man.

"Men do it to impress -- that's the first thing," said Pete. "Then they move on to the second level, where they begin to impress and feel the higher ecstasy of the chili. Then they move on to the third level, where they become connoisseurs and hooked on it, like me, but that takes a long time and a lot of chilies."

Pete's been running market stalls all over Britain for more than 10 years. "I've tasted all the chilies from all over the earth," he said, "and the hottest one, which I grow, is called a Naga Jolokia, which comes from India, and I'm the fella that discovered it!

When it comes to his market stall in Brighton, East Sussex, Pete said he always offers a selection of "appetizers" to potential customers, a "try before you buy.

"It's always the young lads with their mates and girlfriends that come round to sample the chilies," Pete said. It's so amusing to watch. They go from pale to red to pale and run off, but 10 minutes later they're back for more."

Clearly a trend has established itself here, and the East Sussex's youth has embraced it.

But behind the sweat-drenched faces of the chilli consumer, though, ticking away in the brain, which, it's hoped, hasn't gone numb from the sizzling pain, lies a psychological reason behind the desire to consume the hot stuff.

"I suspect that this type of behavior has its roots in our evolutionary past. Males who exhibited the greatest ability to withstand pain stood a better chance of attracting more females," said Richard Wiseman, a senior psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire. "Such behavior becomes advantageous"

But there's a flip side to the hard-man image that's eroded as women become more and more selective in whom they choose to date. "In today's society, Wiseman continued, "such displays have become rather futile, and so it is rather sad that men are still competing in this way. It is not clear what type of women would find such behavior attractive, and whether they would be worth competing for."

This is a view reflected by lad mag Maxim's feature editor, Martin Robinson. "Competition between men to prove their worth and status can often teeter on the realms of stupidity," Robinson said. "They feel they have to do it to prove they're the top dog, the big kahuna, the leaders, the protectors and the one that can sexually satisfy."

However, Robinson believes that through the evolutionary process, the gene that controls competitive behavior may have been thrown into overdrive and possibly hasn't evolved yet. "Consuming the hottest chilies in a genetically competitive sense of the word can be dated back to the primitive ages through evolution and men are, by nature, competitive. The bad news is this behavior shows no signs of abatement."

So guys, when you've had a few pints and you hit the local curry house and are about to order the hottest dish on the menu, think about these wise words from Maxim's Robinson: "It might make you look hard to your mates and potentially good in a fight, but when you're sat on a toilet somewhere when the fight kicks off and you're sputtering and cold sweating, what would your friends think then?"