Can Spicy Foods Make Us Live Longer?

probably an understatement. Maybe there's four or five. But when it comes to eating spicy food, I always think I'm a spice champ until I eat with Mango. So we'll go to an Indian or a Sechuan place, will ard up a few dishes with some extra spice. Our food comes up, and that's when the sweating starts. It's so

irritating because I love the spiciness, I honestly do. But you will be over there downing all this crazy spicy stuff, even requesting these extra spice bombs like you do with the Ramen place, and it doesn't seem to affect you at all. Meanwhile, ten minutes in, I look like I've just finished a marathon. It's ridiculous. Well, I mean, I'm told you it doesn't matter, right, it's just as long as you enjoy the food. Yeah, but the wait staff always seems concerned, and you just look at them. It's

like you guys have the secret unspoken language. Will just not and with that simple nod, it's as if you're saying, like, it's okay, he's fine, he's just from Alabama, not India. And then they look at you and they not as if to say, we felt pretty safe and assuming he's not from India, But are you sure he's okay? I mean, just look at him over there. It's amazing this language that you guys have. You look back as if to say,

trust me, he's fine. This happens every time. But if you have a couple of bath towels, you know, one for his forehead and one to soak up the pool on the floor, that that that would be great. Well, I'm pretty sure that's all in your head. We don't have any sort of secret language. But I do have these cards printed up. That's a what you're about to see is them pretty but don't panic. That's thoughtful of you.

But either way, we both love spicy food and the science of spicy food is fascinating to both of us. So we had so many questions going into this episode. How did humans evolved to enjoy spicy food, what does it predict about our personalities if we enjoy that spicy kick? And is there any evidence that eating spicy foods could help us live longer? So let's get started. Hey there,

podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh how Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof glass demonstrating just how well he can take the heat, that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, I really do wish our listeners could see this, because Tristan's assembled this spicy food feast for the ages here. I mean,

look at this stuff that he's eating. He's got an order of drunken noodles, a Sishwan hot pot, a bowl of five alarm chili, a pile of ghost pepper chicken wings. I mean, it's ridiculous, and he's just going to town on all of this. Guy is a machine. I honestly feel he's just like showing off at this point. I feel like you should have, like that cartoon, steam coming out of his ears, but he hasn't even broken a sweat.

It is a little bit eerie. Well all right. You know, while most people enjoy adding at least a little spice to their meals, some can definitely handle the heat better than others. So we'll take a look at why that

is a little bit later in the show. But to kick things off, I thought we should talk about what makes spicy foods taste hot in the first place, or really, I should say what makes us think that spicy foods taste hot, Because you might remember from one of our earlier episodes, the one we did on the science of flavor, spicy isn't really a taste at all. In reality, the burning sensations we feel from spicy foods, those are the result of our sense of touch, rather than from taste

or smell. Yeah, I remember involvest like some sort of chemical trickery, right, Like it has something to do with how kept satan interacts with our touch receptors. Yeah, that's right. So kept satan, of course, is the chemical and the seeds and the tissue of the chili peppers that gives them their heat. And you know, pepper plants actually evolve kept satan as a protective measure, and this was to help them, you know, protect them against animals and insects

so they can have a better shot at dispersing their seeds. So, for instance, when humans and other mammals eat chili peppers, we tend to make it so the seeds can't be germinated later when we inevitably part ways with them and we grind the seeds too much with our molars, or else we destroy them completely in our harsh digestive tracks.

So as a deterrent to this, pepper plants started producing a chemical that activates these special touch receptors, and they found all over the inner layer of our skin and that includes our mouths now. This receptor is called trip V one, and it's the body's early warning system for hot temperatures. So think about if you sit on the sun too long and your skin starts to burn a little, or when your hand grazes the hot stove and you know to pull it away really quickly. That's trip V

one at work. And this is where the chemical trickery that you mentioned comes in because kept sastan actually works by lowering the energy needed to activate those trip V one defenses. So, while these receptors would typically read any mouth temperature over a hundred and nine degrees fahrenheit as a burn, once they've bonded with KEP sasan anything higher than nine three degrees fahrenheit registers as dangerously hot. So

that's interesting. But I mean, the average mouth temperature for humans is ninety eight point six, So kep sason actually makes these receptors think your whole mouth is burning. Yeah, that's exactly what happens, and that's why sometimes feels like your entire mouth is on fire when you eat something spicy, because you know, as far as your brain knows it,

it actually is. So then if we have these touch receptors all over our body and not just in our mouths, why don't we feel like our skin is burning anytime we touch a chili pepper. Remember we're talking about the inner layer of our skin that has these receptors, so we can really only feel the burn of the peppers on areas where our outer skin layer is thin enough

for that cap sason to get through. So the mouth is obviously one of the places the eyes are and other and that's why you're never supposed to touch your eyes after you've been handling chili peppers. And there are also a few other thin skinned places that we don't have the name here, but you can probably use your imagination for these. Yeah. I actually remember reading this old Hungarian proverb about how good paprika burns twice, so I

think I know where you're getting at. I love how you always try to find a way to use a Hungarian proverb, but I should mention that it's not just kept station that triggers this false flag burning sensation. You know. Research also shows that trippy one receptors also respond to other quote unquote hot foods, including black pepper and ginger.

And there's also trip a one that so called was sabi receptor, and that's activated by a certain oil that's found in foods like horseradish and mustards, onions, garlic, cinnamon, and of course with sabi. I like how, at first class it seems like all those plants have come up with this genius way of making themselves unpalatable to mammals.

But then when you think about it. There's this one stubborn species that doesn't seem to have gotten the memo right, and humans, like, we love our spicy foods, and we even have contest just to see how much heat we can stomach. It's weird that we do these things that cause pain, or at least make us think that we're in pain. It is pretty strange when you when you think about it. But there was this one researcher who was a professor of psychology. His name was Paul Rosen.

This was back in the nineteen eighties, and he actually proved that there is a connection between thrill seeking and eating spicy foods. So here's how rose inputs it. He says, humans, and only humans, seem to get pleasure out of innately negative experiences when they are aware that the body signals are not really threatening. There's a term for it. He calls it benign masochism. And it's the same inclination that makes it fun to write a rollercoaster or watch a

scary movie. I mean, all these things provoke these real biological responses in our bodies, but since we know at some level there's no real danger, the end result is actually a pleasurable feeling rather than this purely painful one. So I actually read up on where that pleasure stems from and the it was pretty surprising because it turns out while men and women both enjoy spicy foods, the

reason why they do it are completely different. So for women, research shows that they simply like the burning sting that spicy foods provide. And since cap sasan has been known to trigger the release of endorphins, you know, maybe that's not so surprising, right, it makes you feel good. But men, on the other hand, tend to partake in spicy foods because they like the attention. And bro, we like attention.

We love that spotlight. So there's no denying that. Downing a whole plate of like hot wings, you know it's going to get you some street cred in some circles. And our culture actually views being able to withstand spicy foods as a sign of strength and the lust for that kind of like social glory that seems to drive male spicy food fans more than anything else. Well, that actually makes sense in a a lot of a study I

was reading about from a few years ago. The researchers at the University of Grenoble, and they got together a hundred and fourteen men, and they brought them together in a testing lab and had them sit down to a meal of mashed potatoes and hot sauce. I don't know why, calm, I don't know why it need to be mashed potatoes, but actually I would do this, But how much hot sauce was to be used was completely up to the participants. Now, in the end, the men who used the most were

also the ones with the highest levels of testosterone. Not only that, but those who have the spiciest palettes also shared tendencies toward social dominance, aggression, and risk taking, all of which have been linked already to high testosterone. It's kind of crazy how much of a predictor if someone's personality can be for whether or not they like spicy foods. Like appriendly people who are into action movies and really adventurous hobbies are six times more likely to enjoy hot

foods than those who prefer tamor pastimes. Which is why I know you were not part of this study, because I know you love spicy foods. But if I think about all the movies you've recommended over the years, the ones that had the most action in them were probably I don't know, like Rushmore and Amalie maybe having like the least action packed movies ever. So I do love to read those descriptions of like aggression and dominance and

all that. So there's something great about it. I worked in this Italian restaurant where all the white staff was Mexican, and they were doing this thing where they got these cucumbers and they put all the spice on it, and they were calling the students over and one by one giving them theseus and then uh, and then everyone's mouth was on fire. And then they called me over and they were like watch, watch wasatch and they had anyone.

It's like it wasn't that spicy. It felt like a superpower. Yeah, that's pretty pretty amazing, And I do wonder if it's always been that way, Like is that how humans started eating spicy food to begin with? You imagine like this prehistoric daredevil that came along and decided to chew through that burn because he liked the adrenaline boost or I

don't really know. Yeah, I mean I was reading about this archaeological dig from a few years ago where these researchers found evidence that Europeans had been spicing up their food for way longer than we once thought. Like Apparently they found the remains of cooking pots from more than six thousand years ago at three different dig sites, and this is in northern Europe, and inside the pots they found the bits of plant residue, some of which looked

a lot like modern day garlic mustard seeds. So I mean, but what makes you sure that they were eating the seeds for the heat specifically, Well, mustard seeds, like most spicy plants we've been talking about, have next to no nutritional values, so they wouldn't have been providing much energy on their own, but they definitely would have added like a sharp bite to whatever else was on the menu. And that's ultimately what researchers believe we're dealing with here,

the earliest known use of spices and cooking. That is pretty interesting. And you know, I always assume prehistoric humans had these bland diets for the most part. I don't know why. I would just think about what was available. So I just imagine like lots of cooked meat and whatever edible plants that could scrounge up that might help them just survive with that being the main goal. So it is kind of fond to hear that they might have been experimenting with different foods and adding flavor just

for flavors sake. Yeah, and I'm actually glad our ancestors were willing to try new things, because that's likely why spicy foods taste so good to us in the first place. What do you mean. I thought we were in agreement that spiciness is more of a mouth feel and not a tape east. Yeah, I mean, we explain why our bodies register certain foods is hot, but those foods still carry their own flavors to I mean, think about what

a chili pepper tastes like. Right, it feels hot, but it tastes kind of earthy or bitter or maybe even mildly fruity. So you're saying we inherited a taste for those flavors from like as far back as cave men. Well, I mean maybe not cave mean exactly, but these beneficial traits are passed down both culturally and genetically, and that includes our preferences for specific flavors. All right, But is

liking the flavor of spicy foods a beneficial trade? I mean you just said that most spices have basically zero nutritional value though, right, that's true, but you've got to keep in mind that spices have these antimicrobial properties that

can be very useful for preventing food spoilage. So I think about chilies and other hot peppers, they can actually kill up to seventy five of food born bacteria, and then spices like garlic, onion, oregano that can actually wipe out the full So while today we mostly use spices to enhance our foods flavor men, researchers actually think the original reason for using spices was to kill that food

born bacteria and fungi. And if that's the case, like the people who ate those foods with antibacterial spices were likely the healthiest ones in their communities. And not only would these prehistoric chefs have passed on their cooking tips to their offspring, they also would have likely passed along

this taste for spicy bacteria killing cuisine. I think I get it then, So from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense to have taste receptors that are well tuned to spicy flavors, because you know, ultimately that would make us likely to seek out foods that are protected against spoilage, and I guess in theory would keep us alive longer exactly, And making this connection between microbes and spices was no easy task. A research team at Cornell only pulled it

off by scouring a mountain of data. And this included nearly five thousand recipes from nine three cookbooks, and it represented the traditional meat based cuisines of I guess thirty six countries. And in the end, the researchers were able to conclude that quote recipes are a record of the history of the evely snary race between us and our parasites. The micros are competing with us for the same food.

Everything we do with food, drying, cooking, smoking, salting, or adding spices is an attempt to keep from being poisoned by our microscopic competitors. They're constantly mutating and involving to stay ahead of us. One way we reduce food born illnesses is to add another spice to the recipe. Of course, that makes the food taste different, and the people who learned to like the new taste are healthier for it.

All right, Well, speaking of health, I do want to take a closer look at what spicy foods can and can't do to our bodies, including whether they can actually help us live longer. But before we crank up the heat, let's cool off with a quick break. You're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about the mouth watering signs behind some of our favorite spicy foods. All right,

make up. So a minute ago you were telling us about the ability that's certain spices have to repel bacteria, and humans aren't the only animal to reap that benefit.

For example, I was reading about a study where researchers at Virginia Tech found that when chickens infected with Salmonella eat a kept sation heavy diet, the germs within their internal organs are reduced by half when you compare those two infected chickens that just eat a normal So, I mean, I've got to ask you, if you already eat the chili eating chickens, like, would they taste spicier? You know?

Knowing how much I used to love the spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy's, don't you think I thought about this? I spent a lot of time wondering this. But I'm afraid the answer is no, and they actually got a taste panel together to determine that the flavor of the chilis did not make its way into the meat. And by the way, can you imagine being on this taste being served a plate of chicken that was once riddled with salmonella? I feel like the lack of spice would

be the least of my worries in that one. I know. Well, what's crazy to me is that those chickens must have scarfed down like a ton of chilies to kill such a large percentage of bacteria area, and yet they didn't even feel the peppers heat one bit. And this is something else I know we touched on in our flavor episode.

But the reason for the chicken's immunity is that the birds actually lack that trip the one food receptor, and that actually makes them ideal customers for chili peppers, because birds digestive tracts are much easier on seeds than those of mammals. All right, so chili peppers and birds have a pretty good thing going with one another. But I do want to be selfish and and talk a little bit more about what spicy foods can do for us.

Mango so you know, because the compounds found in our go to spices actually have medicinal properties that humans have relied on for centuries. For instance, you've probably heard that some spices contain properties that reduce inflammation, including turmeric, ginger, and garlic. And there was even a study out of U. C. L A a a few years back where researchers use capsation to hinder the growth of prostate cancer cells. And this was this was in mice and and it actually left

their healthy cells intact. Not to be fair, there isn't much evidence to suggest that eating chilies can prevent you from getting cancer. But if nothing else, I mean, the research gives some hope that peppers could help keep the disease and check sometime in the future. Well, and there's another area where scientists hope to harness this power of spice, and that's with pain management. So we explained earlier how cap says and activates receptors that trigger that familiar burning

sensation in our mouths. But what we didn't mention is that our ability to perceive that burn is deadened the longer the chemical stays in your mouth. And so how does that work. Well, there's this mysterious compound it's called substance P and that's involved in this pain perception, and it gets released when the cap station activates our pain receptors. But after a while, our body's supply gets depleted and

the brain stops receiving these pain signals altogether. So, of course cap station's ability to drain substance P and pain perception is an exciting prospect for the medical community. In fact, it's already been used in these topical creams to treat arthritis, and there's actually hope that it can be applied to

anesthesia and pain killers at some point too. You so this a little off topic, but you mentioned how kept satan continues to burn for as long as it stays in our mouths, and actually, I'm just curious is there a way to get it out of there faster? Because you always hear that milk is great for soothing the burning mouth, But most of the time when I'm eating something spicy, I don't have a glass of milk next to me. So, but at least it's supposed to be

better than water, but I've never actually fact checked this. Yeah, so definitely don't bother with water that that just spreads the capt sastion around your mouth without killing any of its heat, and instead, this is a case where the rumors really are true, because milk can absolutely neutralize that chili burn. And that's because dairy products and kept satan both contain non polar molecules which are capable of dissolving

one another. But that doesn't Milks only trick because it also contains something called casin, and this protein is able to attract kept says and molecules to itself. So not only will milk or ice cream neutralize the kept sacan molecules that happens to touch, but it actually pulls any stragglers off of our trip V one receptors and it dissolves those as well. I always wondered whether that actually works,

But that that makes sense, all right. Well, there's one more potential health benefit to eating spicy foods that I want to talk about, and that's the idea that doing so will actually help you live longer. And believe it or not, there is some research to back up this claim. Back in two thousand fifteen, there was an international team of researchers and they were taking in an in depth look at the connection between spicy food consumption and longer lifespans.

And what they found was that eating spicy food at least once a day for six or seven days a week can actually lower mortality rates by four when compared to eating spicy food just once a week. So I love this idea of eating spicy food that many times a week, but who actually eats that much spicy food? I don't know who does well. The researchers were very smart about this because they focused their study on Chinese people, who tend to eat way more spicy dishes on average

than most other cultures. And on that front, the team had no shortage of volunteers. They actually studied the diets of almost half a million people in China. Now, all the participants were between the ages of thirty and seventy nine. They all agreed to take part in the study for a full seven years. That's kind of amazing. So what

did the study consist of exactly? Well, the participants were surveyed about how often they eat spicy foods and which kinds of spices that they liked most, and then the team followed up with im periodically to see how their health was holding up and if there were any major

changes to their diets. During the seven year span of the study, more than twenty thousand of these subjects died, But after factoring in things like smoking and income and several other factors, the scientists found that the daily chili eaters really did have a lower chance of dying prematurely. And not only was the overall risk of death lower for them, the mortality rate for specific causes was to and you know this included conditions like cancer and certain

forms of heart and respiratory disease as well. That's pretty incredible, But eating spice foods every day is probably too much for people who weren't raised on that kind of diet. Was there any upside to like a more modest spicy food diet? Actually there was, I was curry about the same thing. So the researchers found that those who ate spicy food once or twice a week still had a mortality rate ten percent lower than those of people who

avoided spicy food altogether. And while these are pretty modest numbers overall, it's still impressive that a single type of food could have that much of an effect on our risk of death. But in fairness, the study never actually proved causation. I mean, there could have been other factors beyond spicy food consumption that would, you know, give participants alonger lifespan than others. But you know, if you're a fan of spicy foods already, i'd say upping your intake

probably couldn't hurt. Well, I'm glad you gave that little disclaimer because one thing I noticed while researching is that there's an awful lot of misinformation out there about spicy foods. And you know, the Internet is chock full of stories about how eating too many palapenos will give you an ulcer, or how kept satan can burn off your taste buds. So with that in mind, I thought it might be fun to take a look at some of these claims and see which ones hold water and which ones are

just hot air. All right, that sounds good, But before we get to it, let's take another break. Okay, man, go, So let's debunk some fiery food miss Where do you want to start? Definitely, So let's go with one I already mentioned, which is that spicy foods can cause ulcers and acid reflux. And this one gets a lot of traction because plenty of people report acid reflux or heartburn after eating chili peppers or hot sauce. And for a long time, doctors actually thought spicy foods where the main

cause of ulcers and like. But now we know better because scientists were able to identify the stomach bacteria that's actually responsible for these conditions. All right, what about the people who get heartburn or acid reflux after eating something spicy? Are you saying that's just a coincidence or what? No? Definitely not so. Hot peppers can certainly aggravate these kinds of pre existing conditions, but they actually can't cause them.

So someone who's been diagnosed with gurd, for instance, might want to steer clear of chilies. But there's no truth to the idea that eating too much spicy food will bring on these conditions and people who don't already have them. All right, Well, what about this urban legend you sometimes hear about people overdosing on hot sauce. I mean, it sounds far fetched, but some folks really put this stuff

on everything. So the idea of using too much of it, I mean, it does maybe seem plausible, So I believe it or not, this one is actually true. So cap sasan is a super deadly poison in its pure form, which is why most hot sauces only contained trace amounts of the substance. And still, if you consumed enough hot sauce, it could definitely do some damage. For example, there was this one study that concluded that a person of average weight would have to ingest nearly half a gallon of

Tabasco sauce to overdose and pass out. So of course it would take a lot more than that to actually kill you, but it's totally possible in theory. You know, mango,

you can actually die from drinking too much water. I don't know if I feel like maybe I should share this story, but if you remember when we were in college, we were sitting around on one of the quads the air, and this reporter came up and there had unfortunately been a death from somebody who had, you know, had way too much alcohol one night, and so obviously that's a

very serious story. But we're all just looking to sit around and have a good time outside and suddenly there was a reporter wanting to ask us all these questions, and she asked the question, did you know you can die from drinking too much alcohol? I said, you can die from drinking too much water. And so the very next day this one story, the only time I was ever quoted in the local newspaper was Will Pearson reports, you can die from drinking too much water. So it

is a fact. That was one of our first facts. So having that much hot sauce in your bag maybe isn't the greatest idea. And and actually, you know, the gym is another place where hot sauce won't do you any favors. Speaking of other myths, it always heard that spicy foods can help boost your metabolism. The idea there is that when your body gets all hot and sweaty while eating spicy foods, that it must be burning calories in the process, you know, since that's what happens when

you exercise. But suddenly that's not the case with capsationan Studies have shown that any increase in metabolic rate broad on buy spicy foods is statistically negligible. So, in other words, the thousand calories you get from an over stuffed burrito, you can't really undo that by just putting a lot of hot sauce on it. Well, since you just took a potential benefit of spicy foods off the table, I'm going to even things out and do the same thing

with one of its potential harms. So you've probably heard that rumor that too much spice can do permanent harm to your taste buds, and I mean it doesn't sound too crazy on paper, right, Like kept satan can lead to such an overwhelming mouth burn that it can be tough to taste anything else for a while, which might make you think that your taste buds are well and truly busted. But the good news is that kept satan

doesn't damage your taste buds tissue at all. Yeah. I was actually gonna say, you know, much like hair, taste buds are constantly being replaced, so the idea of doing permanent damage to them it doesn't really make much sense. Yeah, I mean, eating hot foods and I'm talking temperature here and not spiciness can kill taste buds, but like you said, those are replaced pretty often, so even that wouldn't be permanent.

And when it comes to capt sation, there's really no risk at all because, like we've been saying, the chemical interacts with their heat sensing receptors, not our taste buds. So even if your tongue feels numb after eating something spicy, your taste buds are totally fine. All right. Well, now that we've covered some things that spicy foods can't do to your body, I do quickly want to go over

some of the things that actually they can do. So for starters, spicy foods like curries, hot sauce and with sabi absolutely can make your nose run. And the reason why comes down to the natural irritants those foods contain. So in the case of chili peppers, that would be captation. Now, when the chemicals come in contact with your mucus membranes,

the membranes get inflamed and switched into defense mode. And this is where things get runny, because those membranes start producing mucus in order to trap any irritants that might be floating around unchecked. Then any captured intruders are drained out through the nasal passage. So that really is sound advised to, you know, eat hot soup or something when

you want to clear out your sinuses. Actually I always been told that, but really I have learned more recently that that's not the case, because while eating something spicy can provide temporary relief for stuff he knows in the long run, this may actually cause more harm than good. So if you think about, the chemicals I mentioned can also irritate the muscles in your nose, and that causes them to let in more air than they normally would. And when this happens, the receptors in the nose inform

the brain that you're breathing much easier. So the net result is that you think the hot souper whatever worked its magic, but in reality, you've just fallen for yet another one of capsuations chemical tricks. Now, once the heat wears off, your nose muscles contract again and you're back to feeling all stuffed up, except now you've got a bunch of extra snot on top of everything else, and it actually leaves you worse off than you were before.

How crazy, I've never heard that before. So, being of spicy rigans that do a number on your insides, do you know something similar happens in our intestine when we

eat spicy foods. You might remember from the Flavor episode that we don't just have taste buds in our mouths, but all throughout our bodies, including in our colon and intestines and when these intestinal buds, since the inflammatory chemicals we've been talking about, they really a message to the brain telling it to get these airton's out of the body. A s, A p wow. So this is why spicy foods can make some people nauseous or or even send

them running the bathroom. Exactly so the brain responds to the threat by speeding up bowel movements, and if you eat something especially spicy, your body basically goes to death. Con one for examtly, I read this case study about a guy who ate a bunch of ghost peppers at an eating contest, and he actually threw up so hard as a result, he actually tore a hole in his esophage. Was the guy? Okay? He was? And thankfully he got treatment fast enough to prevent what otherwise could have been

a pretty nasty death. I'm guessing he'll lay off the ghost peppers from now on too. But that's not like Tristan over here has been dominating his spread of spicy foods for what like half an hour. Now. I don't know what's going on with this guy, but that intestinal irritation should have kicked in by now. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, I I think he's got a stomach of steel. But it's only a matter of time at this point. All right, well we better work quick. So what do

you say we get to the fact off Yeah. So, I'm not sure if you realize this, but our offices sit in the second spiciest city in America, and these are the cities where people most commonly order spicy foods at restaurants. This is according to grub Hub. Charlotte actually takes the crown at number one, and it's followed by Atlanta, then Austin, Dallas, and then San Francisco. Okay, so, given your love of spice and the ability to look as cool as a cucumber when you eat spicy foods, I've

got a place for you to visit. So have you ever been to the Brick Lane curry House in New York? So they have this ridiculously hot curry and they put customers up to the challenge to see who can finish the dish that it served him. It's actually so hot that the chef wears a gas mask as he prepares it. But if you finish it, you'll get a free beer, a picture on their website, and it's certificate showing you've done it, a certificate mango. Well that sounds nice, but

I'm actually going for a bigger prize. And that's why I think I'm going to take on the Inferno Soup Challenge at Nitaly's Time mex Cuisine in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the soup has noodles and chicken and a bunch of vegetables, but it also has crushed ghost peppers and lots of other peppers. To try it out, you actually have to be over eighteen. You have to be of

sound mind and health, and of course sober. And it wasn't until two twelve that someone finally managed to finish off a bowl and they won undred bucks as a result. That is a lot of money, but I can't imagine that it's worth it for the pain that that must go at all. So I was actually laughing about this. I was reading about how many Mexicans are often puzzled by how Americans basically guzzle sauce. I mean, we love it that much. It was a great quote from a

chef that was interviewed by The New York Times. He's based in Mexico, and he said, watching someone shovel in sausa with tortilla chips is strange to Mexicans, like how an American would feel watching someone drink sal addressing out

of a bottle. So speaking himself. So, I'm not sure if you remember this, but back in the U s DA officially declared salsa vegetable and this allowed schools to start serving it more and and this of course irked ketchup makers because they had tried and failed to get the same designation years before. This does make me feel a little bit better about all of our salza consumption when we go to Mexican restaurants and you find of frightening how much we eat when we're there. But yeah,

now we're eating a lot of vegetables. I'm pretty sure this means we're super healthy eaters. The five tortilla chips are are good for you to write, let's go with Yes, we'll do it an episode on that on a later date. So I'm going to declare you the winner of today's fact off. Congratulations Mango, Thanks so much well, and thank

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