actually, I think the chilli opens up your taste buds, and you
can taste the food much better .....
I like my food fiery, rich and complex .... the two exceptions
being fresh crustaceans and mollucs .... 
they do nothing to your taste buds actually..
what they do is that they destroy the sense of smell.. so much
so that you cannot taste anything beyond the normal "sweet, sour,
bitter and salty"
which is why people tend to sneeze as they have a whiff of
things like pepper and chilli powder.. to remove from the nasal
passages.. and if you keep eating that stuff, the nose tries to
minimise the damage by throwing up a pile of mucus to not let the
spices wreck your sense of smell...
if you keep going the way of the fiery food, you will eventually
lose all sense of "taste" which is actually your sense of smell..
you'll only have the 4 tastes which is from your tastebuds
