Superman and spicey food

[The Arbiter]

Hear me out. Superman can feel things. Fairly well established. The warmth of Lois and so on. His invulnerability doesn't necessarily translate into lack of nerve sensation across the board. He's mentioned in Post Crisis for example about how he enjoys the taste of cantaloupe melon.

Spicey food causes intense pain but doesn't actually inflict damage to your taste buds as far as I understand it. So my question is:

Would Superman or other extremely durable/invulnerable characters be susceptible to the pain inflicted by spicey food?

[The Arbiter]

Also, apparently I'm addicted to making threads again. Send help. ��

[The Arbiter]

ALSO, I seem to be unable to spell spicy correctly

[Sharpandpointies]

Also, apparently I'm addicted to making threads again. Send help. ��

No complaints here!

[Nik Hasta]

Hear me out. Superman can feel things. Fairly well established. The warmth of Lois and so on. His invulnerability doesn't necessarily translate into lack of nerve sensation across the board. He's mentioned in Post Crisis for example about how he enjoys the taste of cantaloupe melon.

Spicey food causes intense pain but doesn't actually inflict damage to your taste buds as far as I understand it. So my question is:

Would Superman or other extremely durable/invulnerable characters be susceptible to the pain inflicted by spicey food?

Superman in the old comics had feats of eating inedible things as I recall... Superboy Prime ate superheated uranium in the Sinestro Corps war... I can't imagine spicy food being an issue.

[Postmania]

The pain by spicy food does not act on durability, its signals interpreted by your brain. Incidentally, its also a different thing from the sensation of "cold" produced by mint I learned recently, so you can be both "burning" from spicy food and "chilled" by a mint freshener at the same time.

[Nik Hasta]

The pain by spicy food does not act on durability, its signals interpreted by your brain. Incidentally, its also a different thing from the sensation of "cold" produced by mint I learned recently, so you can be both "burning" from spicy food and "chilled" by a mint freshener at the same time.

Was curious so, found a quote with more detail

"The answer hinges on the fact that spicy foods excite the receptors in the skin that normally respond to heat. Those receptors are pain fibers, technically known as polymodal nociceptors. They respond to temperature extremes and to intense mechanical stimulation, such as pinching and cutting; they also respond to certain chemical influences. The central nervous system can be confused or fooled when these pain fibers are stimulated by a chemical, like that in chile peppers, which triggers an ambiguous neural response.

"So how does the brain decide whether the mouth is being pinched, cut, burned or affected by chemical? Scientists are not certain how the process works, but probably the brain makes a judgment based on the type and variety of stimuli being received. Stimulus to the nociceptors alone might indicate dangerous, extreme temperature. But capsaicin, the active ingredient in chile peppers, also stimulates the nerves that respond only to mild increases in temperature--the ones that give the sensation of moderate warmth. So capsaicin sends two messages to the brain: 'I am an intense stimulus,' and 'I am warmth.' Together these stimuli define the sensation of a burn, rather than a pinch or cut.

Source

So... it's the chemical in the spice causing stimulation in pain receptors to cause a sensation of "burning" rather than via actual heat. Presumably, because his threshold for pain is immensely higher, Superman's nerve endings would not be triggered by sensation on the level of the chemical?

[Sharpandpointies]

Maybe spicy food isn't at all hot to him? Just...different flavours.

[Alan2099]

I would like to remind people of Green Arrow's Chili.

[The MunchKING]

I was about to bring that one up.

[The Drunkard Kid]

I gave similar questions regarding wherever or not you can bypass superhuman durability with tickling.

I'm also tempted to write a story with someone who has super stats, but whose pain receptors work like normal, so lifting a car produces a senation similar to having a car dropped on their hands even though they take no damage, running at super speed feels like you are sandblasting any exposed skin, and so on.

[Captain Morgan]

Clark did grow up in the Midwest, so he likely didn't get much spicy food exposure growing up. I imagine he probably doesn't appreciate it now.

[Captain Smith]

Supersenses are an interesting questions as are resistance to poisons. Supes has said a few times that alcohol doesn't affect him. He drinks wine with Lois to keep her company. Spicy chemicals are deterrents to predators but some have evolved to ignored them. So Supes' nervous system as to be picky as to what he senses and what doesn't have a detrimental effect. He certainly has shown he can feel pain when clobbered.

[Shai-Hulud]

ALSO, I seem to be unable to spell spicy correctly

Yes. Your spelling of "spicy" is pretty dicey.

[The MunchKING]

Your spices are rolling dices?