Image of person exhaling flames out of their mouth
Shutterstock.com; Muhammad/Adobe Stock (background)

How Spicy Is Too Spicy?

A new chili pepper has been declared the world’s hottest. But are ultra-spicy peppers safe to eat? 

By Jess Romeo
From the October 2024 Issue

Learning Objective: to read a short informational text, then craft a constructed response that includes a claim, text evidence, and commentary

Lexile: 1000L
Other Key Skills: identifying central ideas and details

Ed Currie was violently ill. He was sweating and shivering, and he couldn’t stand without feeling dizzy. His stomach cramps were so painful he couldn’t move. 

What was happening to him? Had he been poisoned? Had he come down with some mystery illness?

Actually, Currie had just eaten a spicy pepper—a chili he had grown himself on his farm in South Carolina. But the wrinkly little fruit, named Pepper X, wasn’t just spicy. It was hotter than anything he had ever grown before. In fact, last year, Guinness World Records named Pepper X the hottest pepper on Earth.

Eating it, he recalls, felt like swallowing flaming charcoal.

Currie’s creation—and his reaction to it—raises a burning question: Are peppers getting too hot?

Enjoying the Burn

Researchers believe chili peppers were first grown and eaten in Central and South America during ancient times, at least 6,000 years ago. From there, these spicy fruits spread, and they have been used around the world for centuries to give dishes a flavorful kick. Jamaica’s sweet and smoky jerk chicken, for example, gets its heat from Scotch bonnet peppers. Thailand’s hot and sour tom yum soup is made with spicy bird’s eye chilies. India’s fiery vindaloo curry is made with dried red chilies.

Chili peppers get their heat from a chemical called capsaicin (kap-SAY-suhn). The more capsaicin a chili contains, the hotter it is. When you pop a pepper—or anything containing capsaicin—into your mouth, the chemical tricks your brain into thinking you’re eating something scalding hot in temperature, even though you’re not. As a result, you feel a burning sensation in your mouth. If you’re sensitive to spice—or if what you’re eating contains a lot of capsaicin—it might really burn. Your cheeks might flush, and you might start to sweat.

This might not sound like a pleasant experience, but for many people, eating spicy food is worth it. In fact, many enjoy the burn.

Here’s why: When a person eats something spicy, their brain releases a flood of feel-good chemicals, including dopamine and endorphins. These chemicals combat what the brain perceives as painful heat and make the experience more enjoyable. It’s similar to the rush some people get when riding a roller coaster—the ride might feel terrifying at times, yet when it’s over, somehow they want to do it all over again.

“The first time I tried hot peppers, it knocked me to my knees,” says Currie. “I was sweating, I was snotting, I was drinking as much water as I could. . . . But it made me feel good.”

Stomach-Churning Reactions

Today new breeds of peppers are reaching mind-blowing extremes of heat. Take Pepper X. It’s about 1.6 times hotter than the previous record holder for hottest pepper in the world, the Carolina Reaper. Meanwhile, super-spicy foods are more popular than ever. In recent years, challenges to eat chips or wings or noodles that have been flavored with wildly hot peppers have gone viral on social media. 

Often these challenges end with stomach-churning reactions like the one Currie had. (It took him an agonizing six hours to recover from eating an entire Pepper X.) In some tragic cases, viral challenges have ended in hospitalization and even death. 

In general, of course, spicy food is not dangerous or unhealthy—especially if it’s eaten in moderation. But ingesting something with too much capsaicin can have serious side effects.

“The burning sensation can be very painful,” says Paul Terry, a scientist who studies health and disease at the University of Tennessee. “Sometimes it can be difficult to breathe, especially if capsaicin gets in the windpipe.” Other side effects can include stomach cramps, vomiting, and headaches. 

Considering the risks, has people’s obsession with spice gone too far?

Courtesy of First We Feast (Pepper X); ryasick/Getty Images (Jalapeno pepper); Shutterstock.com (all other images)

HOW HOT IS IT?

 

Pepper X - Extreme Hot

Ghost Pepper - Super Hot

Habanero - Hot

Cayenne Pepper - Medium Heat

Jalapeño Pepper - Mild Heat

Bell Pepper - No Heat

Not for Teens

Currie wants people to be aware of the dangers extremely spicy peppers can pose. Though he is proud of his pepper’s record-breaking status, he warns that his ultrahot chilies aren’t meant for the average person to eat in large amounts—and they’re definitely not for kids or teens. 

Concerns about the harmfulness of extremely fiery products—especially for kids and teens, who can be more sensitive to spice—have led to some of these products being discontinued. But plenty of potentially dangerous spicy foods are still out there.

To stay safe, advises Terry, young people should avoid extremely spicy food until they’re older. “Never do a ‘challenge’ to prove anything to anybody,” he warns. 

Eating spicy food should be a good thing, he says. If the heat is unbearable or making you sick, it’s time to switch to something milder. But as long as the spice feels nice, go ahead and enjoy it. Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, anyone?

Short Write

According to the article, many people enjoy eating spicy foods. What precautions should they take? Answer this question in a well-organized paragraph. Use text evidence. 

This article was originally published in the October 2024 issue.

Audio ()
Activities (6)
Quizzes (1)
Answer Key (1)
Audio ()
Activities (6)
Quizzes (1)
Answer Key (1)
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan

Close Reading, Critical Thinking, Skill Building

Table of Contents

1. Prepare to Read

(10 minutes)

Do Now: Journal and Discuss (5 minutes)

Project the following prompt on your board for students to respond to in their journals.

Think back to a time you ate something spicy. Write about that experience, focusing on the sensory details (sensory details speak to readers’ five senses: sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing). Here are some questions to jump-start your thinking:

What was the food or dish you ate? Describe its appearance, smell, and taste.

Where were you when you tried this food?

How did you feel when you first experienced the spiciness? Were you surprised? Excited? Overwhelmed?

Describe any physical reactions you had. Did your eyes water? Did your nose run? Did you reach for something to drink? Did it help?

Do you enjoy spicy food? Why or why not?

Preview Vocabulary (5 minutes)

Project the Google Slides version of Vocabulary: Definitions and Practice on your whiteboard. Review the definitions and complete the activity as a class. Highlighted words: ingesting, perceives, scalding. Audio pronunciations of the words and a read-aloud of the definitions are embedded on the slides. Optionally, print the PDF version or share the slideshow link directly to your LMS and have students preview the words and complete the activity independently before class.

2. Read and Discuss

(20 minutes)

For students’ first read, have them follow along as they listen to the audio read-aloud, located in the Resources tab in Teacher View and at the top of the story page in Student View.

Have students read the story again.

Optionally, divide students into groups to complete the Core Skills Workout: Central Ideas and Details activity. This graphic organizer asks students to identify the central idea and supporting details of each section of the article and the central idea of the article as a whole.

3. Write About It

(20 minutes)

Have students complete the Short Write Kit. This activity can be used to guide students as they write a claim, support it with text evidence, and provide commentary in response to the prompt on page 17 in the printed magazine and at the bottom of the digital story page:

According to the article, many people enjoy eating spicy foods. What precautions should they take? Answer this question in a well-organized paragraph. Use text evidence.

Text-to-Speech