The hot pepper linked to teen’s death can cause arteries in the brain to spasm.

  • waz@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Harris Wolobah’s cause of death is not yet determined; it’s not certain if the chip is to blame.

    Maybe, just maybe we should put our pitchforks away until we know if the chip mentioned is responsible?

  • 🇰 🔵 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    11 months ago

    I can almost guarantee it wasn’t the chip itself that did anything, but some underlying condition the kid already had that was exasperated by the spice. Perhaps even an allergic reaction. The media is blowing up on this without even knowing the actual cause of death.

    • sebinspace@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Pretty fucken disgraceful if you ask me. Take a tragic accident, turn it into clickbait, and use it to drive traffic to your “news” site to get more eyes on your bullshit advertisements.

      God I fucking hate this planet.

    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Yeah, as a hardened chillihead I’ve done extensive reading on the fruits and no where is risk of death ever listed as an issue.

      • 🇰 🔵 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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        11 months ago

        Dragon’s Breath and other extremely spicy peppers are definitely labeled with warnings that they can cause severe anaphylaxis and death by choking.

        The media spins that a lot tho. The scientists that cultivated the Dragon Breath pepper and tested it on the scoleville scale gave it a typical boilerplate allergy warning; news spins that as “worlds hottest pepper is LETHAL.”

  • redfellow@sopuli.xyz
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    11 months ago

    Still no proof capsaicin caused the death. I’m eagerly awaiting for what the autopsy unveils

  • JustAManOnAToilet@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Gonna be real mad if this ends up making it harder to get hot stuff. Don’t push your limits folks, but don’t restrict others.

    • bobman@unilem.org
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      11 months ago

      I’d just argue the warnings are for fluff to make the experience seem more authentic.

          • Sharkwellington@lemmy.one
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            11 months ago

            “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense! Why would a Wookiee, an 8-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense! Look at me. I’m a lawyer defending a spicy chip company, and I’m talkin’ about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you’re in that jury room deliberatin’ and conjugatin’ the Emancipation Proclamation, does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.”

      • WHYAREWEALLCAPS@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Actually, not fluff. From an article on this in the NYT

        Also last year, about 30 public school students in Clovis, N.M., experienced health issues after eating the chip, KOB-TV of Albuquerque reported. As a preventive measure, the Huerfano School District in Colorado banned the chips, according to a post on its Facebook page.

        In a 2020 study, researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center detailed the “serious complications” that can result from eating the Carolina Reaper pepper, noting that a 15-year-old boy had suffered an acute cerebellar stroke two days after eating one on a dare. The Carolina Reaper has been measured at more than two million Scoville heat units, the scale used to measure how hot peppers are. The Naga Viper has been measured at just under 1.4 million Scoville units. Jalapeño peppers are typically rated at between 2,000 and 8,000 units.

    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Also the videos of people all over the internet doing challenges like this and not dying.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    No. It just highlights the stupidity of people following online challenges.

    Apart from that, those chips were labeled 18+, IIRC. How the heck did they get into the mouth of a 14 year old?

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I’m fine if an adult wants to take this kind of risk, but this kid died and other kids have been hospitalized. We protect children from all sorts of other risky things that we allow adults to purchase. I don’t think we should allow children to purchase this.

    No, it won’t stop kids from getting ahold of it sometimes. We can’t stop kids from getting ahold of alcohol and cigarettes all the time either. We should still make it as hard as possible for them to get it until they’re adults- although I think 16 should be the drinking age and 18 the driving age, but that’s another story.

    • SHITPOSTING_ACCOUNT@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      From my understanding, this is the first case of actually serious consequences, and I’m sure millions of these chips have been eaten by now.

      We need more stupid challenges that cause only pain but no serious, long term injury. It’s a good way to learn not to do stupid challenges, keeping kids away from the stupider ones that are more likely to do permanent harm.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I mean… the other way to learn to not do stupid challenges is to just not have stupid challenges because they’re stupid and we explain that they’re stupid.

        • SHITPOSTING_ACCOUNT@feddit.de
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          11 months ago

          I’ve heard that no matter how often you tell a kid the stove is hot and will burn them, they won’t stop trying to touch it until the pain has taught them. Not sure if it’s true (or true for all kids), but I would expect the other side of that (“once they’ve burned themselves, they learn”) to be mostly reliable.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            What exactly do they learn out of this? Not to eat single chips that are super spicy? I don’t get the lesson.

            • SHITPOSTING_ACCOUNT@feddit.de
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              11 months ago

              Don’t do stupid shit because the Internet tells you it’s a challenge.

              The next time it may not be a chip but a tide pod. Or “crystals” made by blowing bubbles with a straw into a bucket of bleach and vinegar (the blowing makes sure that the victim takes a deep breath of the World War 1 gas warfare recreation they just mixed up).

        • persolb@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          Problem is that kids start out dumb until the learn stuff.

          I talk to some of my aunts and uncles from pre-internet and I’m not sure how they survived the stupid stuff they did.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I’m 46. I’m pre-internet. I did stupid shit. But not as stupid as the shit kids are doing now. I did things like walk through a bunch of poison ivy and thorn bushes because they were at the edge of the field and recess was boring.

            • QuinceDaPence@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              walk through a bunch of poison ivy and thorn bushes

              I feel like that’s more likely to kill someone than hot chip.

        • halvo317@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          I’m going to do the laying still in traffic challenge because the Russian Roulette challenge isn’t cool anymore

        • matthewmercury@reddthat.com
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          11 months ago

          I hate that a corp saw people organically having stupid fun with stupid dare fads, something humans have been doing forever, and they made a product out of it.

  • PaupersSerenade@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    ‘The chip was only intended for adults’. I know there are plenty of adults that adore a challenge of spice foods. My experience in marketing tells me these people knew exactly what demographic they’d be hitting hardest with this type of challenge.

  • Swiggles@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    11 months ago

    The effects on blood pressure are well known, but that it can cause spasm of arteries is interesting.

    Many people eat lots of spicy food daily and I never heard of serious health issues. Especially a single chip might contain a concentrated amount of capsaicin, but it is unlikely to contain much more in volume then a hot plate of chili con carne or even just a hand full of raw jalapenos. So I assume it is some underlying condition and a shock reaction and not the capsaicin itself.

    I would love to see more research into this.

      • Swiggles@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        11 months ago

        I could have also picked a habanero which is admittedly a lot more spicy and it used to be the hottest pepper in the world, but it usually doesn’t cause a big reaction either.

        Anyway, that’s missing the point. I was talking about the total amount of capsaicin which can’t be really high in just one chip. It is just a tiny amount of concentrated capsaicin and I believe that people usually consume more with a regular spicy meal. Hence my believe that not the capsaicin itself is the problem.

      • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Yeah, but they sell sauces that go well above those chillis scoville ratings made with extracts that people eat all the time without dying.

    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Seabrook’s in the UK did Trinidad Scorpion crisps for a bit and they were gorgeous. Haven’t seen them for a while either.

    • LotrOrc@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I’m with you I regularly eat spicy food, and also grow my own scorpion and ghost peppers and add them into my cooking. I hate most hot sauces in general, as they’re all burn and no flavour. I have however found some that do buck the trend, but in general I don’t go for hot sauces too often

        • LotrOrc@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I’ve had a couple spicy shark ones that have flavour. They also have the pure extract ones but I usually stay away from those

          There’s a Korean BBQ hot sauce that I think is really good

          There’s a matouks west Indian hot sauce I’ve enjoyed

          I’ve found that hot sauces that are a bit chunkier and have actual ingredients like small chunks of chilli or pineapple tend to have a more balanced flavor and heat profile though

      • eran_morad@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Drop some knowledge, bruh. I can’t find a decent hot sauce that’s both hot and tasty, that’s not overpowered by bullshit like garlic powder.

      • LotrOrc@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I’m sure it is subjective. My girlfriend is obsessed with hot sauces and loves adding them to food

        If I make me did spicy though she doesn’t add any which I take as a compliment

    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      It’s probably fine for industrial cooking where it’s being heavily diluted. These crisps don’t use it though.

    • kmkz_ninja@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Why?

      Edit: Nice autodownvote. Yeah, I agree. Nothing artificial should ever be eaten. No extracts. Hell, processed seaweed is too artificial. Frankly, if ypu can’t grow it, we should ban it because I’m an authoritarian tool.

  • porkins@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    I did the challenge two days ago. It was the third spiciest I’ve had. Was definitely something that could do harm to someone who doesn’t know how to handle ultra-spicy. The kid won a Darwin Award. You can’t ban spicy food nor should you. This is a parenting issue. If this kid didn’t die from this skull and crossbones coffin wrapped in warnings, it would have been some other TikTok challenge like drinking bleach.

    • devious@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Random fact, but children under 16 are not eligible for Darwin Awards.

      https://darwinawards.com/rules/rules4.html

      Also, I find it interesting that you are basically insulting this kid for doing something stupid while saying you did it in the same paragraph. I guess you are not stupid because it didn’t kill you?

      • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        The “please pick up your kid they passed out” should have signalled to the parents to maybe visit a doctor. Maybe the mom deserves the award.

      • porkins@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        The instructions state that it is for adults only. I essentially have body training in handling extreme spicy. At 14, you are considered a man in most societies. Why should we wussify American youth? At that age, I was eating habaneros. I blame the parents for not introducing him to spicy food and allowing him to make an informed decision.

    • fear@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      The 14 year old ate the chip at school, there’s no mention of who gave the chip to him. It’s a school administration problem, but hardly a parenting issue unless the mother bought the chip for her son and sent it to school with him. The mother came to pick the boy up right away when he complained of pain, rushed him to the hospital when he lost consciousness, and she is now speaking out to warn others about the dangers of this stupid challenge.

        • magnusrufus@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Warnings of what? Which warning would have made risk clear? Death imagery is part of their marketing not a legitimate warning. The kid eating a commercially sold food item is not on the same level as drinking bleach. It’s weirdly cold and callous victim blaming to say that he was so stupid that he would inevitably die in some similar way. It rings the same as the people that scoff at the McDonalds coffee thing. Yeah you shouldn’t ban hot coffee but you probably should ban serving coffee hot enough to cause third degree burns.

          • porkins@sh.itjust.works
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            11 months ago

            These warnings. They are prominently displayed. It is a stretch to call him a victim. The only exception would be if someone tricked him into eating the chip.

              • porkins@sh.itjust.works
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                11 months ago

                The keep out of reach of children and the adults only warning. Also, the thousands of videos online of people showing how hot the chip is or even ones of kids his age eating it and resulting in an ambulance trip. It wasn’t even the hottest thing that I’ve eaten honestly, but it was enough to make most people have a very bad time. The hottest natural thing that I have eaten was hot sauce prepared by the founder of Halal Guys many years ago when he worked at the original location. He called it a bad batch because it was too strong. The hottest extract was the hot wing challenge from The Mean Fiddler. This was third, but ranked closely with quite a few others.

    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Like the big “only for adult consumption” warning he ignored on the back of the box?