'It smelled like pain and regret': inside the world of competitive hot chilli eaters

guardian ^

[mylife]

The pandemic has driven chilliheads online, where some have built impressive followings for their hot sauce reviews and daring feats of strength

Kate Robertson

Thu 1 Apr 2021 04.00 EDTLast modified on Thu 1 Apr 2021 08.07 EDT Shares 134 Carolina Reaper Hot Chilli Peppers: ‘You can effectively map your GI tract by feeling how it moves.’ Two Carolina Reaper peppers: ‘You can effectively map your GI tract by feeling how it moves.’ Photograph: mrsixinthemix/Getty Images/iStockphoto Behind his calm, methodical approach to every hot chilli eating and super spicy food challenge, Dustin “Atomik Menace” Johnson is enduring a kind of physical pain and mental anguish beyond what most will ever experience in a lifetime.

In one of his most-watched YouTube livestreams, the 31-year-old Las Vegas resident downs 122 super-spicy Carolina Reapers, the Guinness World Record holder for hottest pepper, while fans watch and cheer him on. While there are clues that he’s struggling – his face turns a deep red color and shines with perspiration, and in the latter half in particular, he takes breaks – his low-key demeanor has made the growing chillihead community question whether he’s built like an average human, or if he’s human at all.

“I would say anywhere after 60, every few peppers I would say, ‘I don’t know if I can keep going,’” Johnson recounts via Zoom from the same black-lit, poster-adorned spot he shoots his videos in. “And people were like, ‘Nah, just keep going. You look like you’re fine.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not ... but I’ll keep trying.’”

Two hours later, he finished the bowl.

[wardaddy]

She likes folded southern style egg nog eaten with a spoon

Not much else sweet

Except me

But I’m semi-sweet