People often notice that spicy food upsets their stomach or causes digestive distress. But most people who eat spicy food love it, and don’t want to give it up. What if I was to tell you that it’s possible to heal your gut and to enjoy spicy food?! Continue watching and I’ll tell you how I’ve seen people make that dream come true.

Does spicy food throw a wrench into your digestive system? If so, why is that? Is spicy food bad for you? Or is it good for you? What can you do about this, other than avoid spicy food? And why doesn’t everyone have this problem with spicy food?

In my 25 year career I’ve had a lot of patients tell me that spicy food causes them abdominal pain or otherwise causes them digestive problems and IBS.  

And I’m here with some good news. Most of those patients ultimately could eat spicy food with no problem whatsoever.

You see, spicy food wasn’t really the problem. The problem was that something else was irritating their digestive system and causing it to be inflamed, even if only a little bit, and then spicy food came along and just made it all that much worse.

Image for a moment that we’re not talking about your digestive tract, but we’re talking about the skin on your arm.  What happens if you rub something spicy on your arm?

Nothing happens. Your arm is fine.

Now imagine that you’ve scraped your arm and it has a big abrasion on it. Your skin is no longer healthy and intact. The epidermal barrier has been broken, and now maybe your skin is even weeping.

Now imagine rubbing something spicy on your arm.

What happens?

It hurts like hell!  

The same thing happens when you have a sore throat. When you have a sore throat, it hurts more if you try to eat or drink something spicy, or something acidic.

The exact same thing is happening lower down in your digestive tract.

If spicy food hurts to eat, then it’s a sign that you have a more significant problem. And that problem is usually not with spicy food.

It’s a sign that your digestive system is not as healthy as it should be.

Why isn’t it healthy?

That is a very important and a very complex question. And I wish that the answer was simple, but there are literally hundreds of things that can irritate your digestive system and cause you to have problems with spicy foods.

And your gastroenterologist is generally not the person who is looking for or going to find most of these kinds of problems. They deal will bigger and more physical issues.

You need a doctor who can tease out the more subtle issues that cause the kind of inflammation and irritation that results in you suffering from spicy food. And that doctor is someone like me, an IBS specialist.

And it’s important to figure this out, because it will save you from a lot of problems down the road, and make your digestive system much, much healthier and happier.

The good news is that once you find and address the underlying issues, spicy foods are usually no longer a problem and can be enjoyed as a regular part of your diet.

I’ve seen this happen in many, many patients. And there is a really good chance that it can happen for you too.

Related Content:

How To Deal With Foods That Trigger IBS Attacks

Garlic and the Microbiome: Good Food Reactions vs Bad Food Reactions

Testing for Food Allergies and Food Intolerances

What Foods Trigger IBS Attacks