Why do we like spicy food?

CrowdScience

Many of us willingly subject ourselves to pain and irritation by eating chilli. CrowdScience listener Tina wonders what’s driving this apparent masochism: why does ‘feeling the burn’ make so many of us feel so good?

It’s just one of several tasty questions we tuck into in this episode. Also on the menu is stew: why does it taste better the next day? Listener Helen’s local delicacy is Welsh cawl, a meat and vegetable concoction. Tradition dictates it should be eaten the day after it’s made, but is there any science behind this?

And we finish the meal with cheese. Listener Leander asks what makes some cheeses blue, some hard and crumbly, and some run all over your fridge. How is milk transformed into such radically different end products?

Presented by Marnie Chesterton and Alex Lathbridge Produced by Cathy Edwards, Marnie Chesterton and Alex Lathbridge for the BBC World Service.

[Photo:Woman eating red Chilli Pepper. Credit: Getty Images]