As your gut/intestines heal from inflammation and lectin damage of a SAD diet (grains, legumes),one would expect that you'll have higher tolerance for peppery spices. I'm waiting for this revelation to come to my husband who just started paleo this month and has had similar problems as you (spicy sends him to the can several times).

Jenn

I find the opposite - sadly! I love curry and used to like fairly spicy; jalfrezi was a favourite. But since paleo (14 months now) I eat a curry, love it - and wake about 4.00 a.m. with a burning feeling in my gut. Not nice! So I've taken to eating the tandoori mixed grill instead. Lots of grilled meat, lots of salad, no chillis.

Also, it does mean no rice - I would otherwise still have rice with a nice juicy curry.

I was out with my SAD friends after a softball game last night and we decided we were going to eat the blazin' wings at BDubs as we had 4 years prior just for the hell of it, after we finished all our other medium-high heat regular wings. Same challenge, 2 wings each.

4 years ago when I was SAD, my mouth was on fire with one wing.

Fast forward 4 years, my lips were a little warm. That's it. My two friends same standard reaction as 4 years ago, still SAD eaters. Now granted I was crying I was laughing so hard at their faces that it made the second wing difficult to eat, therefore I think I got more of the sauce on my lips than in my mouth this time. But still it wasn't the feeling like I needed to rip my lips off like it was the last time.

If this is a permanent change in my spice tolerance, I'll take it. Half tempted to hit up the other wing joints and sign-off to try their hottest wings. Also, no ill effects on the return end.

It seems probable that there would be less digestive issues from spicy food since your digestion is better in general. IE no quick bathroom needs.