Eating spicy foods may have your gastrointestinal tract feel the heat most. It feels like your internal body is on fire, but the capsaicin compound found in chilli activates the release of substance P, a compound that transmits pain and burning sensations.
Over-indulgence of spicy foods may cause the following stomach ailments that you should know of.
1. Acid reflux
Spices are a combination of acids and when too many of these acids are introduced to the stomach, which also has its own acidic contents, it starts damaging the walls of the stomach.
2. Gastric ulcer
Eating over-spicy foods can aggravate ulcers in the sensitive mucosal lining or in the small intestine, called the duodenum, or sometimes even in the esophagus making it worse. These ulcers are excruciatingly painful, further causing stomach pain, nausea, vomiting and weight loss.
3. Loss of appetite
Consuming moderate amounts of spicy food is okay; for instance you can eat 2-3 times a week, but definitely not daily. You can experience a worrying loss of appetite if you over eat spicy foods.
4. Acute gastritis
Gastritis is caused due to inflammation of the gastric mucosa, the membrane that lines the stomach. Most people experience occasional bouts of gastritis that are often passed as indigestion. Acute gastritis may have symptoms like vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, fever, headache along with blood in stool and vomit.
Try and reduce the consumption of spicy foods as much as you can in order to avoid harming your stomach.