Doctors Reveal Threshold For Heat: Is Spicy Food Potentially Deadly?

Last month, a viral TikTok trend turned into an actual nightmare when a teen’s death in Massachusetts was reportedly linked to the popular One Chip Challenge, in which participants eat an extremely spicy chip made by the company Paqui and then see how long they can go without other food or drink.

The official cause of death is still being investigated, but the internet is abuzz with talk of the dangers of the popular social media dare.

We turned to experts who could shed some light on a few questions. Is spicy food inherently bad for the human body? Why are certain people’s palates more tolerant than others’ when it comes to the flavors? And can too much heat in food potentially kill us?

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We all know that burning feeling after eating a mouthful of cayenne. But where exactly does it come from?

“Spicy can mean a lot of things,” said Dr. Lisa Ganjhu, a gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Health. “But the heat-like spice we’re talking about is specifically connected to capsaicin, a chemical compound that’s the active component of chile peppers and gives them that taste.”

A lot happens on a physiological level when we eat spicy foods: sweating, tingling of the lips and mouth, and a burning sensation on the tongue.

Perhaps more interesting than what happens after we eat spicy food is the fact that some people actually enjoy the heat, while others have very limited tolerance for it.

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According to Dr. Natasha Chhabra, a board-certified gastroenterologist, that tolerance depends on a number of factors, including genetic predisposition, life experience, and exposure to the food.

According to Chhabra, “There is no set tolerance when it comes to spicy foods.”

“One person might tolerate more than another; it’s not like alcohol where there is a recommended amount of it per day per person.”

There is, however, a way to measure the heat.

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Legally, companies are not required to include spiciness levels on food labels (and, obviously, things like hot peppers and other produce don’t necessarily even come with labels), but there is a way to measure the amount of heat emitted by foods: the Scoville scale.

Recorded in Scoville heat units (SHU), the scale measures pungency based on the concentration of capsaicinoids (the “parent family” to capsaicin).

Bell peppers, for example, measure 0 Scoville heat units, whereas jalapeños land between the 2,500 and 10,000 ranking. Habanero chiles measure between 100,000 and 350,000 Scoville heat units, whereas Carolina reapers, a notoriously spicy chile pepper, are well above 1,500,000 (the highest level).

The experts we spoke to say it’s unlikely that spicy foods alone could kill you, barring an allergic reaction or food sensitivity.

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“I’ve never heard of spicy food killing someone,” Ganjhu noted before supposing that, perhaps, the severe stomach pain caused by the fare might potentially lead to catastrophic situations.

Although most people’s go-to reaction after eating spicy food is to grab some water, experts note that the very best way to get rid of too much heat is to drink or eat something full of fat that will help neutralize the feeling. Milk, for example, would be a great option.

In fact, capsaicin is a fat-soluble compound, so it won’t break down in water no matter how much of it you have.

Chhabra also mentioned chewing gum and having a throat lozenge. “They increase saliva production, which helps neutralize the acidity in the stomach,” she said.

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