Kind: captions
Language: en
here at the Burks pepper Jam in bethl
Pennsylvania smell that an annual
Festival of food
entertainment and
contests all centered on Chili
Peppers We Begin our contest with the
long
HS let's turn up the
heat and we're
off zesty with just a hint of poison
round two we're going to start with the
red Fresno
pepper got to be some easier way to
learn about
molecules all right are we
ready that was not designed for human
consumption round number four habanera
peppers parts of my body I didn't know I
had our ire 10 more seconds you got this
don't no don't do
[Applause]
it the orange Copenhagen
pepper what am I
doing oh man oh my
God I want
it
cheers so I'm the first to
fall how does a pepper's caps convinced
my mouth it's on
fire not recommended
I think I'll find the answer here at
Penn State University's Department of
Food Science we all study food so you
have psychologists and microbiologist
and I'm here to see John Hayes he knows
a thing or two about the active
ingredients in these so when you went
and tasted them what did you experience
oh man my gut twisted my tongue burned
my flesh burned I cried I got red I my
nose ran it's like putting your tongue
on the stove and leaving it there that
was an aversive response this plant has
evolved a chemical called capsacin
and the reason it makes that is to keep
animals from eating the chili pis oh man
the Chili Festival people never got that
message and we're just a really stupid
species exactly we're one of the only
species that learns to like that
sensation ultimately pepper plants are
playing a pretty good trick on humans as
well caps really is a key ingredient it
has a long spindly tail attached to a
ring that ring end fits into a specific
receptor that's expressed all over your
body that's just our tongue not just
your tongue oh man this receptor this
lock is actually heat pain sensor
normally the receptor called
trpv1 activates when it comes in contact
with something over
106° the result is a pain message to the
brain ouch something's
hot it's a warning signal to tell your
body
danger and here's the tricky part when
you eat peppers those capsacin keys fit
into the heat pain receptors in your
mouth altering their
sensitivity and so what the Caps does is
it fits into this molecular thermometer
and It Low where's the temperature at
which it activates
it like a changed thermostat they Now
activate at body temperature sending a
false signal that's identical to the one
your brain would receive if you ate
something literally burning
hot it lowers the temperature at which
we feel burning pain yes but it's not
actually burning us correct it's not I'm
not going to see Scar Tissue no no
matter how hot it is it's all a fake out
absolutely