It can make you sweat,
cry,
and even send you to the hospital.
This is the Carolina Reaper,
the world's hottest pepper.
What would happen if you ate one of these whole?
What if you ate 1,000 of them?
Some people can eat incredibly spicy
peppers with no problem.
In fact,
people have competitions where they eat
dozens of Carolina Reapers.
Scientists think that
this might be psychological
and that these people
have a higher pain tolerance
than those who cry after eating a jalapeño.
So sure,
some people can handle a Carolina Reaper or two,
but what would happen if you ate 1,000?
As soon as you pop the first pepper into your mouth,
you'll begin to sweat.
This is the first sign
of your pain responses being activated.
Your metabolism will also be kickstarted
since you're sweating.
This will allow you to burn some calories
as you're on this hot pepper binge.
It might not hit you right away,
but you'll eventually start to feel
an intense burning sensation on your tongue
and then all around your mouth.
Whatever part of your body is touched by the
Carolina Reaper's oils
will be at risk of feeling burning
and numbing sensations.
And you might want to wear some goggles,
as getting any sort of hot pepper in your eyes
will cause severe pain and
could even lead to blindness.
As the pepper travels down your throat,
more pain receptors will be activated.
You'll continue to sweat,
and at this point you might start crying.
But why is any of this happening to you in the first place?
Well, peppers are rated on the Scoville Heat Scale.
For example, a jalapeño pepper
has an 8,000 Scoville heat rating.
But the thing we're eating,
the Carolina Reaper,
is rated at 1.6 million Scoville heat units,
which isn't much less than
U.S. military-grade pepper spray.
So yeah, these things are pretty hot.
And the way these heat units are determined
is based on how hot the pepper's capsaicin is.
Capsaicin is what produces that spicy,
burning sensation we get from eating hot foods.
So now that you know a bit more about these things,
and you've eaten a couple of them,
how are you feeling?
Probably not all that great.
When the pepper reaches your stomach,
it will mix with your stomach acids.
Your stomach will start to make more acid than usual,
and more mucous to protect itself from the capsaicin.
This will make you nauseous.
At this point,
you might want to start chugging some milk
or eating ice cream.
Dairy products contain casein,
which helps to neutralize the spicy compounds,
giving you some relief.
If you don't like dairy products and
and decide to drink some water instead.
Oh, huge mistake.
"It does nothing."
Water spreads the capsaicin around your body,
making your pain even worse.
As you continue to eat these peppers,
you'll continue to sweat,
cry and feel sick to your stomach.
And then, you'll be running to the bathroom.
Eating all this spicy food will
certainly lead to diarrhea.
That's because when you're digesting spicy food,
you absorb more water,
which will lead to you sitting on the toilet
for some time.
But we're not done yet.
You still have hundreds of peppers to eat.
As you continue to eat them,
you'll eventually start vomiting,
and your body will begin to reject all this capsaicin.
But if you do manage to get them all down,
you could suffer from a capsaicin overdose,
which could then kill you.
But everyone reacts
to this level of capsaicin differently.
There have been some cases where
eating a single Carolina Reaper
has lead to narrowing of the brain arteries
and massive headaches.
So if you are going to eat some spicy food,
maybe you should just stick to pouring hot sauce on chicken wings.
Consuming this much capsaicin
would certainly end up with you
being sent to the hospital.
But what if,
instead of all these spicy peppers,
we decided to eat mold?
Well, that sounds like a story for another WHAT IF.