It seems like a more accurate title would be "died of high capsaicin consumption due to a heart defect".

There was an arstechnica article on this topic TLDR:

The newer 🌶️ pack so much 🥵 that we discovered too much capsaicin can cause feel bad effects in the body.

Thailand wasn’t built with ghost peppers and above. We never had 14million scovilles per bite before.

Edit: found it https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/09/teens-death-after-eating-a-single-chip-highlights-risks-of-ultra-spicy-foods/

There is another country that would not exist if high Chile consumption was a real thing.

This is real title gore, the sentence structure barely makes sense too. Unwinding the journalistic word order and even correcting for the missing word "report" and the chilli misspelling, it basically says

Autopsy was conducted on a teen who had a tortilla, and it[s report] says: "He died of high chil[li] consumption and had a heart defect."

The logic is technically correct but the following bizzare statements are suggested (not implied):

• If you are a teen and eat a tortilla, a doctor may decide you need an autopsy. Prevention first, amirite?
• The cause of death of the teen in question was high chilli consumption, which caused a heart defect, and subsequently the autopsy, either of which alone would be enough to kill him.

How hot Thai food is, is somewhat overblown. It's the hottest regularly served food in the world, but it's not hotter than some people enjoy. Their "spicy" comes from red and green chili's, ginger, peppercorn, and garlic. By far, the hottest of that group is the red chili's, but those are around 200,000 scoville. I can eat those and not break a sweat.

The one chip challenge was a lot hotter than any Thai food. Hotter than any of the other challenge or worlds hottest "x" that I've tried (friends and stuff gift me these types of things a lot). I've bought a lot of sauces that are hotter than it, and it still didn't have me wishing for something to drink. My mouth just doesn't react to capsaicin as much as the average persons.

Thank you for fixing the headline! 👍

In my opinion, anything above Habanero is just pointless masochism for no good reason at all.

Idk man I agree otherwise, but tolerances rise. And different chilis taste different. Habanero has a nice, sweet taste, and naga yolokia has a bit sharper taste.

So it very much depends.

I don't try to make "hot" food, but wanting a bit of heat in every meal has lead to my tolerances rising and Habanero just not cutting it for proper heat. (I think the heat is good when you ~~almost~~ feel it in your nipples.)

idk sometimes it's just fun to eat something really hot, especially with friends

my dad and i did the 1 chip thing a few years back and we got a fun time and a funnier video out of it. not much more to it really

I think ghost peppers have fun uses and the Carolina reaper almonds from diamond are actually delicious and not that spicy (guessing they use very little). I agree that the mega potent stuff is better used for spicing up a 3 lb pot of chili.

Yeah well, this guy was apparently trying to eat a whole country?

I've been getting those stomach pains lately trying to pursue the amount of heat I like in my food. I finally decided I just needed to take a break from spicy food to reset my tolerance.

Though, I was watching the series Superhot, and it seems that the stomach pains are pretty commonly associated with eating a lot of those types of super hot foods. So, I'm guessing it's just from the sheer amount of capsaicin on those chips. It's pretty much just capsaicin extract at that point.

I eat most of Turkey every November.

It being dangerous is extremely rare, and the extreme heat can give a pretty big endorphin rush.

You build a tolerance to the heat as you eat more and more spicy food.

After a certain level of heat there is no more flavor, just spice...

Again, your tolerance is what dictates the accuracy of this statement. I think Paqui chips taste terrible, the spice level has nothing to do with it. But, as the other commenter mentioned, you pursue this level of heat because you enjoy the rush it gives you. If you can handle the spice of super hot foods, you either need a ton of peppers (which just makes your good taste like peppers), or you need something insanely hot to add, so you can maintain the food's good flavor, while also having a satisfying level of heat.

The draw is the rush.

As someone who loves super spicy foods:

Heat doesn’t alter flavor. Capsaicin itself is flavorless, so if you just take a food and add capsaicin extract, it’ll increase the heat without changing flavor.

However, IMO there’s no point in doing that unless you’re trying to win a challenge. Most of us get capsaicin from peppers, and each pepper has a unique flavor that can add a lot of nuance to a dish.

Plus, I enjoy the heat sensation and am highly tolerant, so I can eat high heat foods and enjoy them. I would not recommend a spice-naive person start out on super hots.

Because you get used to it and what was super hot a few months ago is just a little tingly today. So over time you eat hotter and hotter stuff.

I ate the hottest level they had at Quaker steak and lube one time. I was laughing and crying at the same time while bouncing around in my seat. It had a bit of an endorphin rush, but also hurt heh Edit: got my free shirt though! Still have it I think. All about the swag baby

I don't think it's a direct reaction. I think it's much more likely that capsaicin induces stress and that messes with the heart.