Subtitles section Play video
Can spicy food kill your taste buds?
100%. And here's how.
Foods are made spicy by the chemical capsaicin.
Chemists say capsaicin can numb your tongue, but it cannot kill your taste buds.
But are you really gonna trust chemists?
Their side hustle is meth.
Let's say, you're a foodie who loves spicy food.
You read about a secret spot that has the spiciest burger in town.
You show up to the unmarked location and order your burger with extra jalapenos.
You're not scared 'cause you know spicy food can't harm your taste buds.
Except, the tongue is a complicated organ.
The taste buds live on the papillae, the small round bumps you like to scrape against your teeth when you're thinking hard.
If the papillae are harmed, so are the taste buds.
And the jalapenos on your burger are teaming with harmful bacteria, specifically salmonella.
The FDA found that 3% of US domestic peppers are covered in it.
And your jalapeno is definitely part of the 3% because you ordered it from a literal hole in the wall.
This restaurant doesn't have a food safety rating, 'cause it's not a restaurant.
It's just a masturbator who serves burgers from behind a urinal.
As the burger hits your tongue, you don't stress about the scorching sensation, but your numb mouth isn't temporary.
Those bathroom peppers just killed your taste buds.
Let's say, you only get your food from the cleanest, fanciest restaurants, and you just ordered the extra hot fajita platter.
It's the king size platter.
And if you finish it, you get a free tee-shirt.
The giant platter takes six waiters to bring out and fills the entire room with smoke.
They tell you to wait because the plate is too hot, but you're so excited. You can't help but take a giant whiff.
This sends the smoke straight up your nostrils.
Nostrils contain microscopic hairs that coat your nasal tract.
Nasal hairs, if damaged, could lead to permanent taste numbing, 100% confirmed.
Hair burns at a temperature of 451 degrees, and most restaurants heat their skillets to a minimum of 500 degrees.
With just one sniff, you've fried your nasal hairs.
You'll get your free tee-shirt, but you'll never get your taste back.
With one sizzling fajita, you've killed your taste buds.
Let's say, you only cook your peppers at home.
In fact, you never leave your house.
Makes sense, you're too busy working on your Rube Goldberg machine.
Perfect way to spend your time.
You momentarily take a break from your contraption to eat a chipotle pasta salad.
But after six spoonfuls, you're lightheaded, common side effect of eating spicy food.
You faint, fall right on the domino that sets off the entire Rube, which ends with a toy airplane that flies across the room and smacks you in the face.
You wake up moments later, grateful to not have a scratch.
But what you don't realize is you've torn your olfactory nerves.
The nerves that sit at the front of your head and are responsible for smell, which in turn affects taste.
Your smell powers are gone, and thus, so is your taste.
Now, you won't know the difference between a banana pepper or a banana, because you've killed your taste buds forever.
Let's say, you've been having spicy food for years without any problems.
You love it!
Almost as much as you love to interview celebrities.
You build a whole show around the concept. It's a massive hit.
Humans love watching people eat, almost as much as they love watching celebrities suffer.
So you're on a grueling schedule.
You're burning your taste buds from morning 'til night.
Whatever tastes buds you regenerate in your sleep, you singe off the next morning.
After over 180 episodes, you think you'll have a break, only to find out your online show is going to TV.
You jokingly ask to change your show from "Hot Ones" to "The Numb One", because as long as the show is on air, you'll never taste again.
Your success has killed your taste buds.
So yes, spicy food will kill your taste buds.
It's just a matter of when and how.
To know how spicy a food item is, scientists have developed the Scoville Scale.
But the Scoville Scale is limited because it only considers how hot a food is based on heat, and does not consider its sexiness.
For your tongue's safety, it's important to consider both.
Now let's look at these peppers again, considering not only their heat, but also their sex appeal.
This jalapeno pepper has a mild Scoville rating of 3,000.
But when we turn this pepper over, we see, it has a six-pack.
We have to move that up the scale.
Scotch bonnets are normally considered very hot peppers, with a rating of 100,000.
But what the Scoville rating fails to consider is this scotch bonnet has a comb-over.
That's a downgrade.
The jwala pepper's right in the middle with the Scoville rating of 30,000.
Now, what happens when we look at the full picture, and see that this jwala pepper has a motorcycle, and takes care of an adorable dog?
That's officially off the Scoville Scale.
I'm expert, Dr. Natasha Vaynblat, and your worst fear has been confirmed.
So um, what are you doing after?