Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20161020-can-you-hurt-yourself-eating-chilli-peppers

by thetopher • 10 years ago

124 170 10 years ago

johnbrodie• 10 years ago

As someone who enjoys a good hot sauce or pepper, I was interested in this article. Have I done damage to myself by eating 5 million+ scoville sauces?

Unfortunately, this article is almost completely devoid of real information, and doesn't answer the question at all.

jameskilton• 10 years ago

I though the article covered the question and was very informative: the only after-affect we've been able to show is the possible, eventual dulling of the pain neurons involved.

kbenson• 10 years ago

There's at least some concession to the title in the third to the last paragraph:

But, hours or a day or so of very serious discomfort aside, there don’t seem to be long-term dangers, per se, in eating very hot peppers. Biologists have observed, however, that administering capsaicin over long periods of time in young mammals does result in the death of the pain neurons, Bryant says. Setting the neurons off repeatedly wears them out, and they don’t grow back.

yourapostasy• 10 years ago

Spicy is pleasurable to me, but nothing beyond the 350K Scoville range. I can't even fathom 1M Scoville, not to speak of 5M+ Scoville. How do you recover from that?

The article prompted me to ask why our pain neurons interpret the capsaicin burn the approximately the same as a temperature burning sensation. It turns out we don't fully know yet [1]. Some spice hound is going to score big time doing graduate thesis work on answering this question, literally eating spicy food for science.

[1] http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/chili-peppers...

topbanana• 10 years ago

It does actually conclude that you can't hurt yourself.

blhack6• 10 years ago

What sauces exist that at 5M+? If you're talking about pure capsaicin extract that you have added to your own food (essentially making your food into a sauce), then you aren't eating anything that is 5M SHUs, since that is not how the scale works.

spotman• 10 years ago

Some of the Blairs brand of hot sauces claim up to 16 million on the scoville scale. I have tried the 4am sauce which claims 4M on the scoville scale, and it was not a laughing matter immediately, more crying, then laughing days later. (I love this stuff though, and would do it again!)

Having said that the stuff in the millions is pretty darn hard to find, they don't stock it or even sell it regularly.

Info: http://www.ushotstuff.com/hotSauceHeatScale.htm

anc84• 10 years ago

tl;dr: Nothing long-term, but pain neurons might die off by prolonged/repeated exposure based on animal tests.

mike_hock• 10 years ago

Meaning your tolerance doesn't wear off, and you only become more bad ass the more you keep eating close to your tolerance level.

steanne• 10 years ago

http://www.jem-journal.com/article/S0736-4679(16)30256-6/abs...

JonnieCache• 10 years ago

The resturant they're talking about is Burger Off, in Hove. They famously make you sign a disclaimer before you eat the burger. I've seen several people attempt it, and they've all regretted the decision.

Brighton also has an annual chilli festival. There's a chilli eating competition, and paramedics are often needed by the losers, sometimes the winners.

It's a bit stupid really, a bit like the teenage-boyish pursuit of unnecessarily strong marijuana, but whatever floats your boat I suppose.

huherto4• 10 years ago

Mexican here. I find it amusing that people focus on how spicy their peppers are. They are missing the point. There are many pepper varieties and each has a different flavor. That is the interesting part and how it mixes with different foods in a variety of recipes. Focus on the flavor, not the burn.

teaearlgraycold• 10 years ago

The burn is an important part of the pepper experience. For some, building a tolerance to capsaicin is a hobby. They're not missing the point, they're just eating them for a different reason.

And what's nice about building up an extreme tolerance to capsaicin is that afterwards you are able to better experience the flavor of peppers, without focusing entirely on the heat.

elboru• 10 years ago

Exactly that's why it's common in Mexican recipes to leave seeds, it's a totally different experience to eat Guacamole with and without pepper seeds.

patcheudor• 10 years ago

Yup, I've been eating super hots for a number of years now including fresh Carolina reapers. They simply don't hurt at all when I eat them and honestly, getting past the heat really brings out the ability to taste the flavor and I can tell you from experience, if you are experiencing pain, you aren't tasting the flavor.

For anyone picking up the hobby, know this, you will reach the point where your stomach and other parts of your body will become a limiting factor so build up slowly. I own a bidet.

ythl• 10 years ago

That's because for us mortals, the flavor is completely overpowered by the capsaicin in most cases. I have relatively low capsaicin tolerance, and so I can't tell the difference between flavors of two different but equally spicy peppers because my brain is too occupied with the burn. It's hard not to focus on it.

huherto4• 10 years ago

:) You will notice that Mexican food is frequently accompanied by a variety of sauces and/or peppers. So you can try them and make the decision on which you want and how much you want and maximize the enjoyment. It is gotta be hot but not too much that you stop enjoying the food. That is how children learn.

ThomPete• 10 years ago

You tolerance will increase the more you eat.

M_Grey9• 10 years ago

I used to think that whole idea was crap, until I started seriously eating spicy foods. Now I really love the different flavors, not just heat, you get from peppers. Habanero are almost fruity, Jalapeno more like an amped up bell pepper, and so on. Then you have the differences in quality of burn; is it a numbing burn like szechuan pepper? A "back of the throat, choke you" burn like a Thai chili?

It's a whole new world of stimulation!

klipt2• 10 years ago

Just FYI, Sichuan pepper is a great spice, but isn't related to the chili family (habanero, jalapeno, thai, etc) at all.

jordigh3• 10 years ago

Mexican here too. I do like the burn, which is a separate sensation from the flavour. The burn is a pleasant, controlled pain. It also makes the flavours more intense.

I regularly consume habaneros, and I've recently tried ghost peppers in the form of hot chicken wings. I didn't know hot sauce could make my whole hand burn, but it did, for an entire day. I can see why people put on gloves to handle ghost peppers. I want to try them again, but my wife doesn't think I should.

logfromblammo2• 10 years ago

Topically applied capsaicin ointment has been used to alleviate [osteo-] arthritis pain. Basically, it overstimulates the pain receptors, and they attenuate to a lower level.

Wearing gloves is a good idea while processing capsicums, but also quietly chant to yourself "Don't touch your eyes. Don't touch your eyes. Don't touch your eyes."

huherto4• 10 years ago

yes, yes. The burn is important. I was just trying to stress the importance of flavor. The best is when it is so hot but so good and the only thing you can do is keep eating. You know that it is really going to hurt when you stop.

at-fates-hands• 10 years ago

I've more than a few friends who didn't use gloves when they were handling hot peppers. Then they rubbed their eyes, or worse, have to go pee and handled their junk. Just imagine the burn you had all day on your fingers being in your eyes or other sensitive parts of your body.

The gloves are a safety precaution and should be used every time - just in case.

dwc• 10 years ago

From the US here, but close enough to the border with Mexico to have grown up eating spicy foods. I agree completely. I have been growing peppers for a while now, and selecting the pepper for a dish is a lot more than choosing the level of heat. There's a wonderful variety of flavor to be found.

ianai2• 10 years ago

New Mexican - agree. You can dial the heat to whatever you want, but I'm there for the flavor.

tunap3• 10 years ago

For me, I seek certain peppers for the taste & heat is a bonus... especially fresh chiles. A mild habanero, however, I don't know if that would fly.

IANANM, but my college roommate was. We roasted+peeled pounds of red & green chiles when his mom sent the fresh crop. Tasty times.

blhack6• 10 years ago

I think it's kindof funny that people somehow associate Mexican and Indian food with being spicy. I almost think it scares them off of trying some of those dishes.

In my experience, Mexican food is rich, but not spicy. Same thing with (some) Indian food. Maybe I'm trying the wrong food, though? I've only traveled in western India (Maharashtra). I would love some recommendations for dishes to try!

BBQ (from the US) is the hottest food I have ever found. Mexican and Indian food barely registers compared to that stuff.

jghn5• 10 years ago

Where are you finding BBQ which registers as "the hottest food"? I can't think of a single regional BBQ style which would qualify as needle moving at all for me.

eternauta3k• 10 years ago

Are you talking about Mexican restaurants in the US or in Mexico?

yummyfajitas• 10 years ago

Marathi food is the least spicy food I've had in India. (Exception: Kholapur.) You'll get significantly more spice anywhere else. Within Maharashtra, try misal pav or kholapur egg curry.

But yeah, even the spicy regions are (mostly) less spicy than "American Bengali restaurant signalling authenticity with too much spice" that I expected before I got here.

baddox• 10 years ago

I've never had American BBQ that is even remotely spicy. In my experience it is very sweet.

girzel• 10 years ago

I've never been to India, but of course have eaten lots of spicy Indian food in restaurants. The one time I had dinner at an Indian person's home (in China) she made dishes that were so hot I had to stop. I don't know where in India she was from. They were absolutely delicious, but so spicy I had to take a break. There were these hunks of fish with some sort of herb/spice mixture seared into the outside...

cheiVia0• 10 years ago

I'm Eastern European, and for me, an Indian buffet is basically a minefield. If I eat something very spicy, my mouth burns, my taste buds basically go numb, and everything starts to taste the same. I prefer my food "bland" thank you very much :)

huherto4• 10 years ago

That is right. Usually the food is not too spicy. Most of the time you have a variety of peppers and sauces that you can add to your liking. Specially if it is going to be consumed by children. Some people prefer mild sauces, other people prefer hot flavor. Some dishes are known to be very hot and you know your have to eat them at your own risk. e.g. Diablo Shrimp. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77FNW-nZyJ0

kaeluka3• 10 years ago

You're assuming that you know what 'the point' is. You don't, because it doesn't exist.

GavinMcG• 10 years ago

Be more charitable in your reading of others' comments. Even if you could take them to be presumptuous or rude, responding as though they are more nuanced will lead to a better experience for everyone.

Here, it's entirely plausible (and frankly likely, given how easy it is to come up with a dismissive answer like yours) that the author meant something like "those who are inspired by cuisines that traditionally use a lot of peppers, like Mexican cuisine, seem not to understand the reason they're used in those cuisines."

alyandon• 10 years ago

Ghost peppers are the hottest peppers I've ever dared to eat directly. They are so far beyond hot that I don't even feel a burning sensation - more like pure, unadulterated pain like you'd expect from having a nail driven through your tongue. I really don't like the flavor of them either so there isn't really much motivation for me to ever eat one again. They are really great in small quantities for spicing up dishes without altering the flavor of the dish in question though.

Habanero peppers on the other hand - have a wonderfully fruity flavor. I wish I had a bit more stamina with regards to eating them. :(

CalChris• 10 years ago

I cook with habs. The fumes are enough and I scrub after. But one hab in a jambalaya is quite tasty.

abakker• 10 years ago

It wasn't a ghost pepper, but I once at a small green pepper that was so hot that my tastebuds kind of short circuited, and all I could taste was roses. After a few seconds of that, stye came back online with the excruciating burn of a very hot pepper, but for about 3 seconds, I could have sworn I had eaten a rose.

aaroninsf• 10 years ago

<-- would pay and suffer to experience this illusion!

sehr• 10 years ago

chile pequin maybe?

khedoros12• 10 years ago

When I was about 10, I was down in Mexico doing some volunteer work. Someone gave me a small green pepper. I bit into it, and it was incredibly juicy. I remember feeling a burst of stars in my mouth, a short pleasant flavor, numbness, and then a feeling like a firecracker went off in my mouth. I drank a lot of water, but my mouth burned for a solid hour.

mickronome• 10 years ago

Very tangentially related, I once tasted a experimental whiskey which was explicitly made to be just about as smokey as possible.

Which my brain - to my astonishment - interpreted as the smell of particular kind of very fine dry sand, on a varm day. It was hilariously wierd to drink a liquid and not get any taste sensation, or even any significant feeling of imbibing a liquid for that matter. Never has 1cl of liquor made me as giddy as that one time :)

coldcode• 10 years ago

People in India supposedly use ghost peppers painted on fences to keep elephants out. Anything that causes and elephant pain is something I don't want to try.

mrob• 10 years ago

Mild habanero varieties exist with the same flavor, eg:

http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/content/files/Suave.pdf

However, I have only seen them sold as seeds, and I prefer normal habaneros so I've never tried growing them.

curun1r• 10 years ago

I wish I had a bit more stamina with regards to eating them.

It is possible to separate out the heat from the flavor using a centrifuge. I remember seeing a cooking show where that was done to make a ghost pepper milkshake without any of the spiciness. If you're keen to explore the taste of peppers, you might look into it.

SEJeff2• 10 years ago

Short answer: yes Longer answer: yes, and it can wreck you

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/18/ghost-pepper-p...

blockoperation• 10 years ago

But does that really count? Eating superhot peppers won't necessarily make you vomit, let alone make you vomit enough to rip your oesophagus (which is incredibly rare, even in the most intense bouts of vomiting).

FWIW, I grow these things, and have foolishly tried eating them raw a few times, and while I really wouldn't recommend it (the pain is indescribable, both in your mouth and in your stomach, and if you forget to wear gloves when handling them, many other places too), there's nothing particularly dangerous about it.

SEJeff2• 10 years ago

I'm a "food enthusiast" and have had raw + cooked ghost and scorpion peppers. Somewhere on YouTube there is a video of me making a proper ass of myself while crushing a scorpion/ghost/habanero hit wing challenge at Jake Melnicks in Chicago. I'm not ever gonna try the Carolina reapers as I don't see the point, but know they will rip you up pretty good. I always eat starchy or carby food before eating super spicy stuff and know it is genuinely no joke. It wouldn't be hard to get an ulcer or worse from some of those peppers.

Noseshine2• 10 years ago

Anecdote allowed?

This reminds me of the Habanero Burger at "The Swinging Door" pub (I'm not sure it had the same name when I went there occasionally over 10 years ago, the first time actually almost 20 years ago in 1997) in San Mateo, CA [0]. (EDIT: It was the Prince of Wales pub previously! Lots of Habanero Burger stories: [1])

They had a "Wall of Flame" with stickers from all people who "survived" eating one. You had to sign a release form before you got your burger (shown in [1]). As another ex-colleague of mine used to say: Good spicy food hurts twice...

I only ever ate one tiny piece off a colleague's plate. Initially I thought "I feel nothing, what's the big deal?" I then spent a good part of the next half hour with my tongue hung out under flowing water from the faucet in the bathroom.

The people I saw try it either ate very fast, to be finished before the full pain set in, or very, very slowly. Except for an Indian friend of mine, who seemed pretty unmoved and ate the whole burger normally.

By the way, I don't remember the day of the week, but I always went there when the "Silicon Gulch Jazz Band" was playing [2][3]. Back then the (good) singer, an old guy (like all others in that band), played a washboard, really cool. The music was really good (the singing too) :-)

[0] http://theswingindoor.com/habanero-burger-xxx/

[1] https://www.yelp.com/biz/prince-of-wales-pub-san-mateo

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mOPl4BXqD8

[3] http://www.sgjazz.com/

Raphmedia3• 10 years ago

my tongue hung out under flowing water from the faucet in the bathroom.

Oh god. Capsaicin is not water soluble. You just removed everything from your tongue BUT the capsaicin.

Noseshine2• 10 years ago

I know (and knew). It was pain control, not capsaicin control. Fortunately they had some disgusting Oreo-cookie like ice cream sandwich that I got in the end.

avar2• 10 years ago

I wonder if I'm the only one who finds water helps a bit. I know it's not water soluble, but it has the effect of evenly distributing the burn around my mouth, which feels better to me.

For some reason I'm a lot more bothered by extremely localized pain than evenly distributed pain, when you chew a pepper you tend to e.g. disproportionately burn on one side of your tongue. Drinking some water and swishing it around in your mouth solves that problem.

evincarofautumn• 10 years ago

It is soluble in alcohol! Now, I don’t know if drinking alcohol with spicy food actually helps the burn, but it can certainly help take your mind off it.

peferron• 10 years ago

Haha, I was also thinking about the Swinging Door while reading these comments. I haven't even had the courage to try their XXX burger yet, the "basic" habanero burger is already enough for me. If you ever go back, try getting an ice cream sandwich after your burger, works much better than water :)

sib2• 10 years ago

If you ever happen to be traveling through Boise, ID, stop at the Flying Pie Pizzeria and try a triple habanero pizza. 12" pizza with 18 southern Mexican habaneros on it. http://www.flyingpie.com/habanero-season.htm

chrischattin• 10 years ago

I can second this. One of the best pizzas you'll ever eat. They only make them in August - which is apparently when the habaneros are the hottest.

yoamro2• 10 years ago

I'd be interested to see how someone would fare by chewing on some synsepalum dulcificum aka miracle fruit [1] followed by a Ghost pepper. In theory, it should be able to block out most of the TRPV1 heat receptors as well. If only I did my thesis on this.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synsepalum_dulcificum

M_Grey9• 10 years ago

You should submit that concept to some of the more daring Youtube channels, such as "Good Mythical Morning"... they might actually try it.

StavrosK3• 10 years ago

Well, I have some old miracle fruit tablets and various spicy sauces I can try if you want... Probably not Ghost pepper, though.

M_Grey9• 10 years ago

I for one, would be interested in the results of that!

3stripe• 10 years ago

Some of the videos I've seen on YouTube look pretty darn painful.

jobvandervoort• 10 years ago

I always found it interesting that our way of rating spiciness is through the subjective Scoville scale. Directly from wikipedia:

In Scoville's method, an exact weight of dried pepper is dissolved in alcohol to extract the heat components (capsinoids), then diluted in a solution of sugar water.[3][4][5] Decreasing concentrations of the extracted capsinoids are given to a panel of five trained tasters, until a majority (at least three) can no longer detect the heat in a dilution.[4][5][6] The heat level is based on this dilution, rated in multiples of 100 SHU.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale#Scoville_organo...

In other words, the test is fully subjective and has been found to be unreliable:

A weakness of the Scoville Organoleptic Test is its imprecision due to human subjectivity, depending on the taster's palate and their number of mouth heat receptors, which varies greatly among people.[6] Another weakness is sensory fatigue:[6] the palate is quickly desensitised to capsaicins after tasting a few samples within a short time period.[4] Results vary widely (up to ± 50%) between laboratories

avar2• 10 years ago

It's not "fully subjective" by any sensible definition. Yes humans are the measurement device, and humans differ and are unreliable, but given a sufficient number of samples you arrive at more accurate numbers.

Nobody's going to give a paprika the same rating as a Carolina Reaper. You might have some give two very strong peppers the same rating, but then you might just need more people to test it.

In any case, the practical utility of the scale is mostly to get an idea of how spicy something is, it doesn't really matter much if something is 700K or 600K, it's enough to know that it's around 2x as strong as a Habanero.

guitarbill2• 10 years ago

Isn't there going to be a huge sampling bias? I certainly refuse to eat Carolina Reaper, and can't be the only one.

logfromblammo2• 10 years ago

Radiation exposure is measured in becquerels, grays, and sieverts, for the decay rate, absolute absorbed quantity of radiation, and relative effect on human tissues.

Piquancy exposure is measured only in scoville-heat-units, which is the spiciness equivalent of the sievert. Clearly, piquancy is in need of at least one additional unit that can abstract away the variations in mammalian tongues. That number, in combination with your personal taste profile, would allow you to predict the perceived spiciness of any given dish when you eat it.

You would just need to objectively measure the concentrations of capsaicinoids, and their TRPV1-activating analogs, put those into a spreadsheet with your own numbers, and determine how piquant something would be in scoville-heat-units when you, specifically, eat it.

zwieback• 10 years ago

Reviewing video games while eating hot peppers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTMIgyUZDDk

spikels• 10 years ago

This article seems to say chilli peppers can't hurt you. However just a few days ago the Journal of Emergency Medicine reported that a ghost pepper (a very hot chilli pepper) caused an esophageal rupture - a serious and potentially life threatening injury.

http://www.jem-journal.com/article/S0736-4679(16)30256-6/ful...

Why is the BBC not aware of this? A simple search would have yielded a more timely, accurate and interesting story. Somewhat disappointing.

jjulius• 10 years ago

One could argue that it wasn't necessarily the pepper itself that tore the hole in that individual's esophagus. Rather it was the intense, repeated vomiting that caused the rupture. The pepper only caused the hole by proxy.

robryk2• 10 years ago

Note that this is a very indirect way of harming someone: eating peppers has (likely) caused vomiting, violent vomiting has caused rupture of the esophagus.

This is similar to saying that walking can cause fat embolism (a life threatening condition): while walking you can fracture one of the long bones in your leg (e.g. your femur). A rare complication of long bone fracture is fat embolism.

vhost-• 10 years ago

But was this due to the heat, acidity or some other characteristic of this cross? Or was it because he swallowed a pepper whole and it tore a hole because it went down sideways? You have to remember how much and how fast people shove things into their mouths during these contests...

I can't find anything that tells me why it happened.

robryk2• 10 years ago

It's because of strain while vomiting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boerhaave_syndrome

jjawssd• 10 years ago

Fresh off the branch ghost peppers can cause terrible tissue damage for days similar to taking a shot of 192 proof alcohol except ghost peppers can have an incredibly deep and rich flavor for a few seconds before the burn becomes overwhelming.

http://www.theliquorbarn.com/polmos-spirytus-rektyfikowany-1...

The stuff sold in stores diluted in vinegar simply can not compare to freshly grown ghost peppers. There really is an upper bound which humans can not safely handle physically. For freshly grown peppers this might just be several cubic millimeters of pepper.

byuu• 10 years ago

At least on Chrome, bbc.com is hijacking middle-clicks and opening them in the same window. Who there thought that was a good idea?!

That's the first time I've seen that one. If you're a web designer, please do not do that.

teh_klev• 10 years ago

It's done that for years. The BBC UK news site is the same, hugely infuriating.

calvinbhai• 10 years ago

I'm not sure why people go for the heat.

I'm from India and there are many hot/spicy options available. But most chili peppers are used for their flavor or color (e.g. Kashmiri Red Chilli powder is very red, less spicy) and varying the levels of heat/spiciness by adding more of less of it, instead of using the spiciest variety (like the ghost peppers that have caught the fancy of the west).

I wish the flavor component had some kind of a quantifiable unit instead of the scoville units that has fueled this craze of feeling the burn.

Don't fall for this tongue numbing "hottest wings/sauce in the world". Enjoy the flavor :)

blhack6• 10 years ago

People go for the heat because it's fun.

In my refrigerator right now I have a variety of hot sauces ranging from ~100,000SHU (Scoville Heat Units[1]) to 1,500,000SHU.

The 1.5M sauce is way, way, WAY too hot to eat regularly, but it is kindof fun to put it on something and then see if you can get through it or not.

I would put it in the same vein as playing two podcasts at the same time and seeing if you can comprehend them both. It's stupid, but it's just silly to see if you can do it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale

mindcrime3• 10 years ago

Yeah, I use everything from jalapeno pepper to Carolina Reapers and everything in between at various times. I never make anything that's just plain loaded down with nothing but reapers, but I use a mix of peppers to make things that are really hot but also have a nice flavor. The heat just makes things interesting, but heat for its own sake isn't very interesting to me. You could buy pure, refined Capsaicin, but what's the point. It would taste disgusting, like "Dave's Insanity" which is hot but nasty.

Here's a neat trick I like... combine Scotch Bonnet peppers (or pepper sauce) with the hotter stuff like Ghost Pepper, Trinidad Scorpion or Carolina Reaper. The Scotch Bonnets aren't terribly hot (a little less than Habanero) but taste really good... and then just a little bit of the other stuff to jack the heat up leaves the nice flavor while still making you sweat.

na85• 10 years ago

In my experience it's the provincials, the types who like to think they're cultural and worldly but aren't, that typically go bananas for the hottest peppers.

When I was in university I noticed it tended to be the guys with inferiority complexes that were the ones to bring up how hot they like their food, and would try to work it into conversation.

Spice/heat is a meme.

platz2• 10 years ago

I can assure you I eat spicy food when no one is around.

crazygringo• 10 years ago

Because sometimes you're eating some boring-ass flavorless overcooked chicken breast with no skin and you need something to make it palatable distract you from what appears indistinguishable from tough, stringy cardboard. :)

But really, it's just fun. Enjoying extreme spiciness has nothing to do with enjoying food. Think of it as just a totally separate activity.

And I get that plenty of people don't find tongue-numbing to be fun at all. For all I know, there's a gene for it. But for those of us who do find it fun... it's fun!

michaelcampbell• 10 years ago

Enjoying extreme spiciness has nothing to do with enjoying food.

Thanks, finally an honest answer to this question. This I can get on board with.

flashman• 10 years ago

Enjoying extreme spiciness has nothing to do with enjoying food.

I'm convinced there's a significant element of machismo: "Are you tough enough to eat this?"

taneq• 10 years ago

Dunno about people in general but I build up a tolerance to chilli surprisingly quickly. It's not about eating super hot things, but about eating things with a nice warmth on a regular basis. Over the course of a month I can go from "jalapenos are hot" to "a forkful of habanero is nice" with little increase in subjective heat, and then if I stop eating spicy food for a couple of weeks it'll reset back to the start.

lfender6445• 10 years ago

some people go for the heat because of the endorphin rush associated with spicy peppers, see Capsaicin - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin - which also has analgesic properties.

I've read somewhere that the body releases endorphins because you trick it into thinking its in pain (and for some it is painful) but if you enjoy eating spicy foods this might explain why you'd want to push the envelope.

No pain no gain :)

dragonwriter5• 10 years ago

Physically, the sensation from peppers is pain; it's only not paying if you've lost the ability to sense the heat of chilis entirely.

kranner• 10 years ago

varying the levels of heat/spiciness by adding more of less of it

Not just by adding more or less, the heat is tempered by pairing with ghee or yogurt in the dish, as Capsaicin is fat-soluble. Also of course by pickling peppers in e.g. mustard oil.

hvidgaard• 10 years ago

The general saying is that the extreme heat provoke an adrenaline response and increase endorphins and to some degree dopamine blood levels. I know I like the heat.

kaeluka3• 10 years ago

I used to call it a 'pepper high'.

croon2• 10 years ago

Thank you.

I know Sriracha became meme-levels of popular but I remember the first time I tasted it, thinking: "Oh shit, a hot sauce that actually adds a great taste". Being from a country where the only hot sauce for 20 years was tabasco, and eating vindaloo in a non-authentic Indian restaurant tasted nothing but mouth death. I still never buy "Ass reaper" sauces or anything with similarily ridiculous names, but I love getting as much of different chilis into dishes as I can for taste without ruining it with pain.

lillesvin• 10 years ago

Why not both? I thoroughly enjoy the flavor of many of the capsicum chinense variety — Bhut Orange Copenhagen and different kinds of habanero in particular — the burn kicks in after a few seconds, which is fun too, and then the taste returns once the burn wears off. The aftertaste can linger for hours and it's amazing.

Just think of it as sort of a culinary sky dive.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy other tasty, less hot, peppers. E.g. Bishop's Crown aren't particularly hot, but their taste is great and very fresh.

luca_ing3• 10 years ago

I'm not sure why people go for the heat.
I wish the flavor component had some kind of a quantifiable unit instead of the scoville units that has fueled this craze of feeling the burn.
Don't fall for this tongue numbing "hottest wings/sauce in the world". Enjoy the flavor :)

I agree, but you need a certain tolerance to heat before you can stomach enough chili to notice the flavour.

To westerners with low heat tolerance, "hot" is literally the only taste they detect.

I've always had high heat tolerance, so I'm able to debate with my wife whether green or red or dry chilies would be better for a particular dish - because to us (and to you) it really makes a difference in flavour.

To them, more or less heat is the flavour, so that is what they tweak.

Apart from the machismo factor of proving your superiority by eating a vegetable without crying ;-)

dragonwriter5• 10 years ago

I agree, but you need a certain tolerance to heat before you can stomach enough chili to notice the flavour.

Not really, because the flavor (other than heat, which is itself considered one of the basic flavors) comes almost entirely from the body of the pepper, the heat mostly from the seeds and ribs; preparation choices can very much control the relative presence of each in a dish.

blhack6• 10 years ago

By the way, if anybody is interested in some REALLY crazy heat, check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resiniferatoxin

26• 10 years ago

In Cambodia we have these "bird's eye chilis" [1] and they're included in many dishes. How do these compare to some of the other chili peppers and sauces discussed here? I do have a high tolerance for heat (it's no problem to eat 20-30 of these in a dish, or eat them raw) but I'm not sure I could characterize their taste in any meaningful way.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird%27s_eye_chili

Maxious• 10 years ago

Thankfully a wikipedia editor has categorised the various articles based on the scale mentioned in the article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale#Capsicum_pepper...

ie. bird's eye chilis 100,000–225,000 SHU vs ghost pepper 1,041,427 SHU

agentgt• 10 years ago

I used to be able to handle really hot peppers up in till college and then one day during college completely over did it .

I'm not sure if that "day" was the cause of my increased sensitivity or if I just age related but now I can barely enjoy red pepper flakes. Oh it goes down just fine but later... later I'm writhing in pain rolling around in the bed at night ... and then later on the toilet ... well I think you know what happens next.

As I get older it seems to get worse which seems like it shouldn't. Shouldn't the receptors be more tolerant? Or maybe it is more like allergens where there is a certain threshold and then once that threshold is exceed you become more and more sensitive (e.g. poison ivy does this).

BTW capsaicin does have a theoretical LD 50 based on mice. So yeah if you eat enough it will probably kill you but it is an outrageous amount (~ 50-100mg/kg). You would have to have it extracted to do it (some one actually went ahead and did the math here on how many peppers: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/6810/can-you-die...).

askvictor• 10 years ago

Not sure if this is related, but I developed a condition called 'Lichen Planus' in my mouth a couple of years ago, and now it hurts considerably when I eat even the slightest amount of chilli. Sour foods also hurt, but they're easier to wash away. Quite a shame as I used to enjoy a bit of heat.

asteli• 10 years ago

I had a similar experience. I grew up eating spicy food, with no issues whatsoever, aside from the topside burn. At 21 I experienced a tipping point wherein my gut became sensitive to spicy foods. I had to rethink my relationship with spicy food, else cope with the symptoms you describe.

I am very curious what the physiological basis for this change is.

teekert• 10 years ago

Pff had to almost read to the end for that.

tim333• 10 years ago

I seems you can hurt yourself - XXX Hot Chilli Burger of Hove has sent 5 people to hospital with it's 9.2 million Scoville burger. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2577255/XXX-Hot-Chil...

a1a• 10 years ago

"Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_Law_of_Headline...

dharma1• 10 years ago

You can pop as many as you like if you're a bird - https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_did_birds_adapt_to_eat...

dmichulke• 10 years ago

Unfortunately, no bird will ever read this.

Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

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