Last year, emergency doctors at a hospital in the United States were puzzled. A man had been admitted in severe distress: he had a headache, a runny nose and a dry throat, but they could not tell what was wrong.

After a CT scan, a urine test, a blood sugar test and a physical examination, they reached a conclusion. He had not been poisoned and was not suffering from any mysterious illness. He had eaten one of the hottest chillies in the world.

The chilli he ate was a Carolina Reaper, which is 275 times hotter than an ordinary jalapeño. The 34-year-old had eaten it as part of a competition.

He was lucky: the constricted blood vessels in his brain returned to normal and he made a full recovery.

This may be an extreme example.

But every day, in every corner of the world, millions of people, perhaps hundreds of millions, sit down to spicy food. Their tongues may burn, and they reach quickly for water or a soft drink to ease the heat.

Many get an upset stomach. So why do people still eat hot food?

It is really a love story that has lasted thousands of years, and it shows no sign of fading.

The figures make that clear: between 2007 and 2018, world chilli production rose from 27 million tonnes to 37 million tonnes.

According to the market research firm IndexBox, each of us on average ate about five kilograms of chillies last year. An average red chilli weighs 20 grams.

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.