Spicy Food & Ulcers: Is there a connection

If you have ulcers, one of the most common beliefs is the link between spicy food and ulcers.

Does spicy food cause ulcers?

The link is seductive. Spicy food “burns” your tongue. So, it lends itself to logic to believe that spicy food could burn your intestines. Enough to give you ulcers.

But if this were true, wouldn’t everyone who ate spicy food get ulcers? Surely food can't behave differently for different people.

So what is going on?

Spicy food does burn, but the burning is not caused by the spicy food itself. The burning is caused by poor digestion. Allow me to explain.

When you don’t digest food well, the acids produced stay in your digestive system. The acid is designed to break down food.

When it remains in your digestive system for a long time, it erodes the walls of your intestines.

It is this action that causes ulcers.

Once you have ulcers all sorts of things can irritate the area. Spicy food being one of them. Think of it this way. If you scratched your hand and, not that you would, but imagine you rubbed spices on the affected area. It would burn.

In much the same way, the ulcer burns when you eat spicy food. But the spicy food is not the cause, it just appears that way.

So what can you do?

Indigestion is easily one of the most common ailments I see everyday. We consume more food than we need. We dont chew our food because it is hyper palatable. We put toxic food into our system including alcohol. Many people have H.Pylori.

Collectively, it causes ulcers.

If you want to stop ulcers, your body has a wonderful mechanism. It makes new intestinal lining every four days. So if you changed your lifestyle and reduced indigestion, the ulcers would disappear.

Then if you so desire, you can eat spicy food. Or not. But more importantly, it was a choice you made. Your ulcers did not make that choice for you.

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