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Nebraska Department of Education
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Spicy foods - too hot to handle?
When those hot and spicy Mexican, Cajun, and East Indian foods that you love make your mouth feel as though it's on fire, reach for a cool, soothing glass of . . . milk.
When those hot and spicy Mexican, Cajun, and East Indian foods that you love make your mouth feel as though it's on fire, reach for a cool, soothing glass of . . . milk. That's right, milk! It contains a protein, casein, which is particularly effective at washing away the substance in hot peppers that causes the burning sensation.
That hot substance is called capsaicin, and it creates the fiery feeling by binding tightly to taste receptors in the mouth which are connected to nerve endings that send "hot" signals to the brain. The casein in milk, largely by acting like a detergent, literally wipes or strips capsaicin away and stifles the "fire."