Hot hot! Johnny Scoville and Shahina Waseem during a competition. Some competitors are out of commission for days, unable to eat and tending to upset stomachs (and yes, that also sometimes means painful sessions on the toilet). “It’ll be later that night or even as late as the next morning – that’s when it hurts me the most.” “Luckily, what happens with me is I can stave that off long enough to get through a challenge or to get through a pepper contest,” says Johnson, who used to coolly solve a Rubik’s cube puzzle in competitions until fans complained it could give him an unfair advantage. The pods have to wind through the intestines, and with every twist and turn comes a sharp, stabbing sensation.Įventually, the stomach revolts, tightening even more into a stubborn cramp, seemingly begging for it all to stop.

As it continues down to the right side, Johnson says that’s where it stings the most. It begins with a warm sensation at the base of the sternum, which quickly turns tight, like a sustained, never-ending ab crunch. “You can effectively map your GI tract by feeling how it moves,” Johnson explains. Some chilli eaters experience face spasms, thunderclap headaches, excessive sweating, tears and a gushing, runny nose, but just about everyone’s struggle peaks when the peppers proceed from the mouth to the digestive tract. He’s built that tolerance up with practice, especially when it comes to the mouth, the sensitive starting point of every competition. Johnson concedes that he’s always had a higher-than-average tolerance to capsaicin, the organic compound in pepper seeds that interacts with receptors in the body to create the hot, burning sensation of spicy foods.

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