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  • 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?

Can spicy food kill your taste buds?

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