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.
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.
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.
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. :(
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...).
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
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.
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.
Short answer: yes Longer answer: yes, and it can wreck you
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/18/ghost-pepper-p...
By the way, if anybody is interested in some REALLY crazy heat, check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resiniferatoxin
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.
Reviewing video games while eating hot peppers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTMIgyUZDDk
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.
Some of the videos I've seen on YouTube look pretty darn painful.
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...
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.
Pff had to almost read to the end for that.
You can pop as many as you like if you're a bird - https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_did_birds_adapt_to_eat...
"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...
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
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.
tl;dr: Nothing long-term, but pain neurons might die off by prolonged/repeated exposure based on animal tests.
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 :)