Why You Can – Or Can’t – Handle Eating Hot Peppers

Posted by: Samuel Phineas Upham

For most people, adding the jalapeno they grow in their garden to their homemade salsa is as spicy as they can handle. But the dozen or so contests at a Naga King Chili eating contest in northern India had to deal with an entirely different challenge: eating a chili pepper that is at least 125 times hotter than a jalapeno. At the end of the event, a contestant went to the hospital in an ambulance and the winner was curled up in a corner. But another contest was shopping for souvenirs 20 minutes later.

How did one person have such a different reaction to these insanely hot peppers? According to Smithsonian, the difference is in genetics. Some people have less pain receptors on their tongues to send their brains painful messages when they eat spicy foods.

Learn more at: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/The-Gut-Wrenching-Science-Behind-the-Worlds-Hottest-Peppers-208350211.html
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Samuel Phineas Upham is an investor from NYC and SF. You may contact Phin on his Samual Phineas Upham website or Twitter page.