Given what they can do to your mouth, you'd expect hot peppers to have damaging effects on the rest of your digestive tract, if not elsewhere in the body. To be sure, patients with various gastrointestinal diseases, such as hiatal hernias, ulcers and bowel disorders, are commonly advised to avoid hot, spicy foods.
However, according to Dr. Arnold Levy, a gastroenterologist in Washington and vice president for education of the American Digestive Disease Society, ''Precious little data are available anywhere in any language on the effects of hot, spicy foods on the digestive tract.''
Dr. Levy said: ''Caffeine and alcohol are gastric irritants; citrus fruits are acidic and can irritate the lower esophagus and add to stomach acid; chocolate, mint, nicotine, alcohol and fatty foods can relax the lower esophageal sphincter, the muscle between the esophagus and stomach, and cause heartburn, but there just aren't any data on hot, spicy foods.''
He added that people with chronic heartburn are likely to have less severe symptoms if they stay away from spicy foods, but this alone won't diminish the episodes of heartburn. For ulcer patients, he said, avoiding acid-stimulating foods is important, but there is no evidence that eating spicy foods will slow the healing of ulcers.