Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers? • Hacker News Board

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#51

Post by avar » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 8:27 PM UTC

Raphmedia wrote: post #27

Noseshine wrote: post #17

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…

> 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.

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.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#52

Post by Raphmedia » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 8:47 PM UTC

avar wrote: post #51

Raphmedia wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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 i…

I've heard water can break down the capsaicin into smaller parts. Could be what's happening here.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#53

Post by mickronome » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 8:54 PM UTC

abakker wrote: post #19

alyandon wrote: post #12

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…

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.

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 :)

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#54

Post by logfromblammo » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 9:00 PM UTC

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…

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.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#55

Post by Broken_Hippo » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 9:28 PM UTC

khedoros1 wrote: post #40

huherto wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:) 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.

Mexican food is usually designed to be complemented by different peppers, but a lot of American foods are modified from European traditions, where spicy peppers are rarer. So, spiciness itself is a more unusual taste in our food. I think that the American culture (especially thinking about the Midwest) has the idea of "spicy vs not spicy", but not the idea of which flavor of pepper goes well with which kind of food.…

I generally thought the selection from the Midwest was bad - I'm from Indiana, and always lived in tiny to smallish "medium" sized towns. Often you are at odds with the grocery store, which may or may not carry much else. Most folks first intro to "spicy" food is Taco Bell and the local "authentic" Mexican restaurant. We (Midwesterners) simply haven't usually experienced anything else. Pure ignorance, really.

Then I moved to Norway. Oh, I was so wrong about selection. Tacos and Mexican-type flavors are very popular, albeit very mild. If I don't want the single 'normal' variety, I have to search for fresh peppers and hope they have them in stock. There isn't generally even an option for mild vs spicy. Wanting different flavors from different chilis is downright exotic.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#56

Post by SEJeff » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 9:45 PM UTC

blockoperation wrote: post #24

SEJeff wrote: post #13

Short answer: yes Longer answer: yes, and it can wreck you http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/18/ghost-pepper-p...

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…

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.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#57

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 9:51 PM UTC

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.

[deleted]

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#58

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 9:53 PM UTC

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.

[deleted]

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#59

Post by spikels » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 10:12 PM UTC

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.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#60

Post by jjawssd » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 10:26 PM UTC

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.