Ray Judiel M.

Cawas December 6, 2019

Kyle Matthew Cid

Eating Spicy Foods could trigger Hemorrhoids

Malays were among the first inhabitants of the Philippines over 20,000 years ago, they
taught Filipinos how to prepare dishes with hot chilies and since then Filipinos embraced and
treasured spicy foods and has become a part of the Philippine cuisine. Provinces in the Philippines
uses their creativity and talent to create their own version of spicy foods, Bicol has its famous
“Bicol Express”, Ilocos has its “Dinakdakan”, and Pampanga has its “Sisig”. But some superstition
restrict Filipinos from consumpting too much spicy foods, as it says that spicy foods could cause
Hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids are swollen veins at the lower part of the anus and rectum. But, why
does spicy foods are often connected to the growth of Hemorrhoids?

The truth is everyone has Hemorrhoids but not everyone has symptoms of it that
can be seen outside the anus, which means Hemorrhoids aren’t really caused by eating too much
spicy foods thus it grows naturally in each person inside the rectum because it is a natural act of a
person to defecate every single time. What the spicy food does is it cause irritation to the anal
fissure that would lead to inflammation, Chilies which are known as a gastric stimulant, contains
capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin which has nitrophenols which produces nitration of foodstuff,
which in result causes toxicity in our gastro – intestinal tract. Capsaicin are well known to affect
visceral sensory perception and chillies are known to accelerate gut transit that increases bowel
movement. Also, spicy food is the most common source of diarrhea or constipation which would
also lead to the inflammation of Hemorrhoids because of the frequency and difficulty of
defecating. So, when the condition of Hemorrhoids started to aggravate it will now grow and that
is when they appear outside the Anus.

As a result, with proven result as stated above, it is no wonder true that the famous Filipino
superstition which was believed by many before that it is scientifically true that eating spicy food
has an effect on their anal fissure but eating spicy food would make your hemorrhoid worst.
Filipinos may have plenty of superstition that most of it wasn’t been able to be proven
scientifically, but it doesn’t need for superstitions to be scientifically proven to make it real thus
most of it should be believed because science may explain things concretely in this world but not
everything can be explained by science.
Source:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOM3tqlPKGo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemorrhoid

https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/health-and-wellness-articles/2018/september/spicy-
foods-healthy-or-dangerous