News and Views

I do have opinions about tolerating people’s differences, but that’s not what this post is about.

I’m talking about building up a tolerance to substances or environmental factors. For example, some people can tolerate much spicier food than others, or drink more alcohol without feeling drunk, or drink lots of strong coffee.

It’s not surprising that people vary in these characteristics, but it is interesting that many are proud of tbeir own tolerance. For example, we’ve all heard some guy smugly talking about “drinking somone under the table”. What they are saying is, “I drink so much, so often, that alcohol doesn’t affect me much anymore”. That sounds like something to be ashamed of, not proud.

Or pouring lots of Tabasco on your food. Nothing wrong with spicing up your food, but I think as you develop tolerance to the spice you lose appreciation for the underlying flavors. I’m proud that it only takes a little spice to satisfactorally enhance my food.

Coffee is another example. Interestingly, brain activity scans show that without coffee, habitual coffee drinkers’ brains show much less activity than “normal” people’s brains. With coffee, their brains look like a normal brain does without coffee. So being able to tolerate strong coffee basically means that you need it to be normal.

Of course, there are some things it is certainly worthwhile developing tolerance for. If you live in a cold or hot climate, it’s useful to develop tolerance to cold or heat. But intentionally building up a tolerance with no personal benefit and potential harm doesn’t make sense.