Teen who ate spicy tortilla chip died of high chile consumption and had a heart defect, autopsy says

It seems like a more accurate title would be "died of high capsaicin consumption due to a heart defect".

There was an arstechnica article on this topic TLDR:

The newer 🌶️ pack so much 🥵 that we discovered too much capsaicin can cause feel bad effects in the body.

Thailand wasn’t built with ghost peppers and above. We never had 14million scovilles per bite before.

Edit: found it https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/09/teens-death-after-eating-a-single-chip-highlights-risks-of-ultra-spicy-foods/

How hot Thai food is, is somewhat overblown. It's the hottest regularly served food in the world, but it's not hotter than some people enjoy. Their "spicy" comes from red and green chili's, ginger, peppercorn, and garlic. By far, the hottest of that group is the red chili's, but those are around 200,000 scoville. I can eat those and not break a sweat.

The one chip challenge was a lot hotter than any Thai food. Hotter than any of the other challenge or worlds hottest "x" that I've tried (friends and stuff gift me these types of things a lot). I've bought a lot of sauces that are hotter than it, and it still didn't have me wishing for something to drink. My mouth just doesn't react to capsaicin as much as the average persons.

There is another country that would not exist if high Chile consumption was a real thing.

This is real title gore, the sentence structure barely makes sense too. Unwinding the journalistic word order and even correcting for the missing word "report" and the chilli misspelling, it basically says

Autopsy was conducted on a teen who had a tortilla, and it[s report] says: "He died of high chil[li] consumption and had a heart defect."

The logic is technically correct but the following bizzare statements are suggested (not implied):

• If you are a teen and eat a tortilla, a doctor may decide you need an autopsy. Prevention first, amirite?
• The cause of death of the teen in question was high chilli consumption, which caused a heart defect, and subsequently the autopsy, either of which alone would be enough to kill him.

You mean like "died of multiple mosquite bites" doesn't make sense because people live in countries with a lot of mosquitos?

Thank you for fixing the headline! 👍

In my opinion, anything above Habanero is just pointless masochism for no good reason at all.

Idk man I agree otherwise, but tolerances rise. And different chilis taste different. Habanero has a nice, sweet taste, and naga yolokia has a bit sharper taste.

So it very much depends.

I don't try to make "hot" food, but wanting a bit of heat in every meal has lead to my tolerances rising and Habanero just not cutting it for proper heat. (I think the heat is good when you almost feel it in your nipples.)

idk sometimes it's just fun to eat something really hot, especially with friends

my dad and i did the 1 chip thing a few years back and we got a fun time and a funnier video out of it. not much more to it really

I think ghost peppers have fun uses and the Carolina reaper almonds from diamond are actually delicious and not that spicy (guessing they use very little). I agree that the mega potent stuff is better used for spicing up a 3 lb pot of chili.

Ghost peppers taste really good. There is a ghost pepper salsa I freaking love.

"As a chili pepper lover myself I absolutely do not get this garbage trope of treating chili pepper consumption as some kind of contest. The idea is to add heat to your food - not prove your pathetic "manliness.""

I agree and so does Aunty Donna:

Warning, this content contains some Australian language

https://youtu.be/oTjbwg48JuE?si=X4ujFAsv8oelEGmO&t=47

You clearly never had Beef Rendang. It is a Indonesian/Malay dish, which is a lot like a coconut curry. It is unbelievably spicy purely looking at it and you start to sweat. But it tastes amazing and I firmly believe it wouldn't taste the same without that level of heat. It is an incredibly intense experience and I guess literally not for those weak of heart. But if you ever get the chance I highly suggest you at least taste it is unbelievably tasty.

I can eat a habanero without noticing the spice. Should I just stop trying to enjoy spicy food?

Eh. Habanero tastes like ass. I've had spicier peppers with better flavor. And plenty of people, including myself, occasionally enjoy something hotter. I have a decent tolerance for spice, so I can dial things up and still enjoy it.

Yeah well, this guy was apparently trying to eat a whole country?

I've been getting those stomach pains lately trying to pursue the amount of heat I like in my food. I finally decided I just needed to take a break from spicy food to reset my tolerance.

Though, I was watching the series Superhot, and it seems that the stomach pains are pretty commonly associated with eating a lot of those types of super hot foods. So, I'm guessing it's just from the sheer amount of capsaicin on those chips. It's pretty much just capsaicin extract at that point.

What? Maybe they have inconsistent batches, but I did it with friends and it was fine. Hot, obviously, but nothing that crazy. I was pressured into it and didn't play to win, so I went straight for bread and juice for a bit and it was fine. Two of my competitive friends were chilling, the spice went away after a few minutes for them, to the point that the challenge of seeing who can go longest without drinking anything was not even about the heat, but just who could go the longest without drinking in general/who got thirsty the normal way first

Saw some guy eat like 50 of em on youtube.

I eat most of Turkey every November.

Dont tell me what not to do!

No it's totally okay to eat an entire country. Just not in one sitting, you have to spread it out over a few meals.

La wea liquida culiao

Just nibble a bit on the corners

It being dangerous is extremely rare, and the extreme heat can give a pretty big endorphin rush.

You build a tolerance to the heat as you eat more and more spicy food.

After a certain level of heat there is no more flavor, just spice...

Again, your tolerance is what dictates the accuracy of this statement. I think Paqui chips taste terrible, the spice level has nothing to do with it. But, as the other commenter mentioned, you pursue this level of heat because you enjoy the rush it gives you. If you can handle the spice of super hot foods, you either need a ton of peppers (which just makes your good taste like peppers), or you need something insanely hot to add, so you can maintain the food's good flavor, while also having a satisfying level of heat.

The draw is the rush.

As someone who loves super spicy foods:

Heat doesn’t alter flavor. Capsaicin itself is flavorless, so if you just take a food and add capsaicin extract, it’ll increase the heat without changing flavor.

However, IMO there’s no point in doing that unless you’re trying to win a challenge. Most of us get capsaicin from peppers, and each pepper has a unique flavor that can add a lot of nuance to a dish.

Plus, I enjoy the heat sensation and am highly tolerant, so I can eat high heat foods and enjoy them. I would not recommend a spice-naive person start out on super hots.

Because you get used to it and what was super hot a few months ago is just a little tingly today. So over time you eat hotter and hotter stuff.

I ate the hottest level they had at Quaker steak and lube one time. I was laughing and crying at the same time while bouncing around in my seat. It had a bit of an endorphin rush, but also hurt heh Edit: got my free shirt though! Still have it I think. All about the swag baby

I love super spicy sauces because I can add a few drops to food to make it spicy without altering the flavor. I used to eat super spicy for the fun of it but my stomach hates me now, so I've had to tone back.

I love spicy food, but as you said, only to a degree. The "spicy" part of the equation consists of both taste and the influence on your mouth's temperature sensors. If the latter is hyperactive due to capsacain flavor goes out the window, at which point the food is no longer palatable to me.

The endorphin rush plus some really hot stuff is really tasty

(Gonna get downvoted here, but hear me out here,)

Capsaicin isn’t a spice*. It’s not even a flavonoid. That is to say, it doesn’t trigger or act against the taste receptors in your tongue.

What the stuff does is trigger the heat receptors in your mouth (and skin and everywhere else you have heat receptors.) causing your body to feel like it’s burning.

“Spiciness” is what happens when your flavor receptors get overloaded. If you want to experience it, go get fresh garlic and chew a raw whole clove. (Do NOT swallow. And be prepared for massive indigestion. Raw garlic is not to be trifled with.) or maybe take the cinnamon challenge (spoonful, hold it in your mouth. Do not swallow,)

In any case capsaicin itself causes happy-hormones to be released, as a result of the sensation of being burned through. (The sensation also causes increased heart rate and that can get excessive, too.)(the people that like super-hot peppers are masochists.)

(*Spices are technically parts of plants used for flavor that generally aren’t the leaves. So the pepper itself can be a spice, don’t get me wrong. Most are quite fruity. The vast majority of people are not using hot peppers for that fruitiness, though.)

I just find it fun. And super hot sauces don't have to be devoid of flavor. There's truly a lot of options when it comes to hot sauces. I have a rack specifically for super hot sauce bottles, lol.

My wife got me these really nice pepper flake blends from Flatiron for the holidays a few years ago and it was a fantastic gift. It included 5 different blends ranging from about 10,000 Scoville to about... 750,000K. It's painful. Straight up. I can't say it isn't an unpleasant sensation. It's just fun. Like I'll be chuckling to myself while wheezing from the overwhelming heat.

There's a Carolina Reaper version of Blue Almond almonds that I love. Super spicy. And low carb. Unfortunately I think they discontinued them because there isn't a huge market for superhot enjoyers.

I don't think it's a direct reaction. I think it's much more likely that capsaicin induces stress and that messes with the heart.

I know of at least two currywurst places in Germany where they offer crazy hot sauces. The more intense ones are 18+ and I think at least one of the places makes you sign that you won't sue them understand the risk of eating food that spicy.

How is eating something you bought at a grocery store, which is labelled as food, playing stupid games?