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Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

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Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#81

Post by patcheudor »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #15
huherto wrote: post #11

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.

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.

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.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#82

Post by blhack »

calvinbhai wrote: post #80

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 componen…

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

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#83

Post by blhack »

huherto wrote: post #11

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.

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.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#84

Post by M_Grey »

xeromal wrote: post #39
M_Grey wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would just add, that tolerance is worth developing. You get a new world of flavors open to you, but also you get this wonderfully stimulating sensation which can help you feel good, but isn't necessarily fatty or sugary.

It also has the added bonus of stimulating your intestines. Good for when you are feeling unhealthy.

Anecdotally, it definitely helps to speed things along to recovery. I also find spicy food ironically helps in very hot, dry weather.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#85

Post by na85 »

calvinbhai wrote: post #80

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 componen…

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.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#86

Post by blhack »

johnbrodie wrote: post #2

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.

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.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#87

Post by blhack »

aaroninsf wrote: post #21
abakker wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

Get yourself some "miracle berries" for something similar (although without the heat involved).

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#89

Post by platz »

na85 wrote: post #85
calvinbhai wrote: post #80

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 componen…

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.

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

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#90

Post by guitarbill »

avar wrote: post #47
jobvandervoort wrote: post #28

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 major…

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 pr…

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