Anyone here addicted to the heat in peppers?

[Dana Lane]

Years ago I ate some wings they called 'suicide wings' at this local bar and they were really hot. They made my mouth burn made me sweat and gave me a jogger's high. It wasn't long before those weren't hot enough and I had to bring my own sauce to get satisfaction.

A pepper's heat is measured by a scale called Scoville Scale

A Jalapeno is about 5,000 Scoville units
A Cayenne is about 30,000 Scoville unite
A Habanero is about 150,000 to 450,000 units and until recently was the hottest pepper on earth.
A Ghost Pepper (from India) is about 1.5 Million scoville units.

I worked my tolerance up to a point where Ghost Pepper sauce alone wouldn't really hurt me at all. I had to add pepper extract to my sauce to make it hot enough. Pure extract is about 16,000,000 scoville units.

So, lately I kept pushing the limit and the more I ate the more I found I needed to add more pepper extract to my sauce. And I reached a point where it seemed I just couldn't hurt myself anymore. So, I didn't eat anything hot for several days then today went back and got some wings and grabbed my altered hot sauce from the 'heat binge' and coated my wings with them.  All I can say is I have never hurt that bad from peppers in all my life. I totally regretted it (though I didn't stop eating them).

I found it interesting that my tolerance level could drop so fast! Ouch ouch OUCH.

Any other hot heads here?

[Raven]

Yeeeessss! I love peppers! I mainly go after whatever I can get my hands on at the store though, I'll get jalopenos, halbenaros. I got hold of a jar of homemade halbenaro salsa once oooh man that was the best, hot as hell but addictive and well that jar got gone fast by the time I got hold of it lol. I love bufflo chicken the hotter I can get it the better. I don't eat it everyday though just spaced out enough to where I can still enjoy the heat.

[aubrey]

Yeah I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with me hehe. I get bored and annoyed unless I have my fix every few days.

[Ashley Allison]

I have a fatal attraction to chiles

[justmeinoz]

Yes indeed.  Good thing I have an Indian boyfriend now, so can keep the pantry well stocked!

If the Ghost chilli is not hot enough you could try the Black Naga , something like 15 million! You are supposed to just dab it on the food before you cook it. 

[Dana Lane]

I think I suffered for about an hour after eating those wings. The heat finally wore off but I felt my body was violated big time. Very strange. I think I will get some more hot sauce and cut my old sauce down a bit.

btw, there are numerous health benefits in capsaicin (what makes a pepper hot). Can lower cholesterol, thin blood (a desirable HRT side effect!), has been shown to kill some cancer cells, can cure stomach ailments (including ulcers from what I understand). And more! I used to have chronic heartburn and was using prilosec for years until I started eating hot foods. I used to literally panic if I left the house without antacids. Now I get heartburn maybe once a year.

[Debra]

Wowies. I like it hot but not THAT hot.

At thai restaurants, I get 5 star. I use hot sauce on all kinds of things and I love buffalo wings. But I have never been a fan of the "insane sauces". hehe

[Raven]

That's true Dana, I've also something else hot peppers are good for. They can help keep you from getting misqueto bit, if ate often. It does something either to the blood or the body scent I forgot which it is, but yea it works, I'm proof.

[regan]

I've always liked hot food, its been worse in the last year being with co-workers that also like hot food - I backed down after I ate a hot wing and couldn't feel my face for about 30 minutes afterward. 

[Dana Lane]

That's true Dana, I've also something else hot peppers are good for. They can help keep you from getting misqueto bit, if ate often. It does something either to the blood or the body scent I forgot which it is, but yea it works, I'm proof.

LOL. I wish a mosquito would have tried biting me the other day. He would have most certainly regretted it.

[Raven]

Lolz I heard that. Probably would've killed it XD

[Vanessa_yhvh]

I like the hottest stuff I can find, and have challenged certain restaurants to "hospitalize me". 

[aubrey]

A few weeks ago I went to a certain restaraunt known for their "atomic hot wings" which I've always wanted to try but I figured that I would take a one day hiatus from super hot foods that day and ordered garlic instead. Well I guess they misheard me and gave me the atomic ones by mistake! I was happy they did though, but I still could only eat 3 of them and had to go slow. It's a different kind of hot, it felt like the earth was shaking for a sec!

I've been trying to get an Indian boyfriend for a few months now but so far I'm 0-2!

[kyril]

That's true Dana, I've also something else hot peppers are good for. They can help keep you from getting misqueto bit, if ate often. It does something either to the blood or the body scent I forgot which it is, but yea it works, I'm proof.

Mosquitoes do respond to something about scent/temperature; I've never (ever, even once) been bitten by a mosquito, even when I'm sitting right next to someone who's getting swarmed by them.

(that said, it's definitely not only peppers that do it - I don't eat much spicy food at all, certainly not super-hot stuff.)

[aubrey]

The color of your clothes is another factor in getting bitten.

[Raven]

@mija: How so?

[Dana Lane]

Some animals aren't phased at all with hot peppers. I used to have some puffer fish (who love to eat snails) so I had a second tank I was raising snails in. One night while under the influence of alcohol I though I would toss a habanero in the snail tank to see if they would eat it. The snails went right to it and started munching away. Didn't stop until the peppers were gone.

This actually got me to thinking of creating a new cuisine called "Pepper Escargo (sp)". The hot pepper would likely kill some undesirable bacteria and parasites in the snail and make them incredibly hot to eat.

[Mr.Rainey]

I love habenero hot sauce.

[Pundit]

I'm a fan of hot peppers and spicy food in general. I was out at a Thai restaurant with my dad the other night, and I ordered some spicy curry. I kind of ate around the peppers, though. I have my limits, and for whatever reason, Thai food is some of the spiciest food I've ever eaten.

I didn't know about the Scoville scale; that's pretty interesting. There's practically a scientific scale for everything nowadays. You know why people like spicy food, even though it chemically burns your mouth, though? The burns cause your brain to release endorphins (natural pain-killers) to lessen the blow of the spiciness.

[yaka]

Been eating spicy food since i was little, my whole family does, it's in our culture. Even my cat lol.
Food tastes very dull without some sort of spice haha. 
I like peri-peri sauce from Nandos (don't know whether they have it in the states)