304 North Cardinal St. Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Internet food challenges | The week
A Massachusett’s teen is believed to have died after trying Paqui One Chip Challenge, leading to the product pulled off the shelves. This is not the first time that dangerous and harmful food challenges have taken the internet by storm.
1. Paqui One Chip Challenge
Pacqui One Chip Challenge tests a person’s ability to withstand spice. A person consumes the individually packed Pacqui chip and sees “how long they can go without consuming other food and water”, reported Associated Press. The chip is seasoned with two of the hottest peppers, Carolina Reaper and Naga Viper. The challenge became popular at Tiktok. While the chip is being marketed for adults, children and teenagers have been able to get hold of it.
Spicy food can be dangerous to some as your body mistakes it for a body temperature increase and causes “lots of sweat and expanding blood vessels to allow more body heat to spread through the skin,” Forbes wrote. The body also tries to expel the capsaicin, the compound that makes food spicy, resulting in a runny nose and tears. It can also cause nausea and vomiting. For those with underlying medical conditions or higher sensitivity, the impact can even be fatal. “This is another situation where it is important to listen to your body,” Forbes wrote. “If your body reacts very badly to something, it should be a tip that it’s not good for you.”
Subscribe to The week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from several perspectives.
Subscribe and save
Register for this week’s free newsletter
From our Morning News Briefing to a weekly newsletter every week, get the best of the week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our Morning News Briefing to a weekly newsletter every week, get the best of the week delivered directly to your inbox.
2. Cinnamon Challenge
Ten years ago, Cinnamon Challenge was all rage, which resulted in many hospital visits. The challenge meant trying to swallow a spoon of powdered cinnamon without water in a minute. “This is a dangerous practice that can result in suffocation, aspiration of cinnamon powder in the lungs and even respiratory errors that require a ventilator in extreme cases,” Dr. Robert happily CBS news.
When swallowed, the powder has the potential to enter the esophagus and lungs, which potentially causes suffocation, scarred lung tissue and even collapsed lungs in extreme cases. “People with asthma or other respiratory conditions are at greater risk of getting this result in shortness of breath and breathing,” according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
3. Sprite and Banana Challenge
Sprite and Banana Challenge makes their rounds on Tiktok and do devastation on stomachs. The challenge means “eating two bananas and then drinking a bottle of sprite as soon as possible”, explained Dexerto. The result is usually vomiting caused by the chemical reaction that takes place in the stomach after consuming both articles in succession.
“Bananas contain protein, and Sprite has carbon dioxide,” explained So -called pop. “Mix the two with stomach acid, causing reflux.” The trend began to blast in October 2022 after a popular streamer came to the challenge.
4. Salt and ice challenge
Although not by eating, Salt and Ice Challenge caused a number of health complications. For the challenge, a person “table salt puts on exposed skin, add (s) an ice cube and then hold that as long as they can tolerate the pain,” according to Kcrg. The combination can cause second and third degrees of burns and even frost damage.
“It’s a chemistry experiment on your own skin,” Dr. Thomas Granchi, head of the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics Burn Treatment Center, to KCRG. “Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, but the addition of salt causes the freezing point to sink as low as 0 degrees,” explained CBS news. “When applying ice, energy is deducted from what is nearby – in this case, heat from a child’s skin.” Some of the injuries are so severe that it requires skin transplants to treat.
5. Time water challenge
This deadly “challenge”, which originates from online jokes about tide wash skis that seemed appetizing, had many children who eat the skis, who are obviously not intended for consumption. The existence of the trend led to US Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC) as well Tide to publish warnings against eating the tubs.
The detergent contains chemicals that are toxic to people who cause a number of hospital admissions and deaths, especially among younger children. “This was what started as a joke on the internet and now it’s just gone too far,” Ann Marie Buerkle told us from USCPSC CBS news.