Title of the article: The Gut-Wrenching Science Behind the World’s Hottest Peppers
Summary:
Nagaland of India contains one of the world’s hottest chilies – the Naga King Chili (Bhut Jolokia). The author of the article, Mary Roach, arrived to Nagaland to experience the Hornbill Festival, in particular, to watch the Naga King Chili-Eating Competition. She aimed to find out and understand the pleasure and pain the Capsicum genus brings to the people who consume it. The Naga King Chili Pepper varies in heat, but can score extremely high on the Scoville heat unit. The contestants of the chili-eating contest began to suffer from the effect of the capsaicin in their digestive tracts. Some experienced hot flashes and unbearable heat from within, others, like the winner of the contest, vomited at the end of the competition. Some competitors were only able to eat a few of the Naga King Chili, however, others ate up to fourteen chilies. Tolerance for capsaicin, according to the article, is largely built on practice. Only a small part is due to genetics. Capsaicin damages pain receptors over time, so if someone continuously eats hot chili peppers, the pain receptors in their nerves will slowly degenerate and become less sensitive. Mary Roach was able to sample the Naga King Chili in small doses, which brings out the wonderful flavors that would otherwise be overwhelmed by the heat of the capsaicin.
A fruit’s heat and lineage are very dependent on growing conditions it is in. Soil, rainfall, and climate are factors that would have the potential to alter a plant. The author questions rather the Naga King Chili would be hotter if it were grown in an area with different growing conditions. Even in regions just next to Nagaland, it is possib...
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...opens up more food choices for consumers.
Concluding paragraph:
The article was talked about the science behind hot peppers like that of the Naga King Chili. Capsaicin can be very hot and intolerable, and even harmful to the human body. The tolerability to hotness of chilies is due to environment more than genetics. Just like lecture, we learned that a trait (phenotype) is the product of genetics and environment. Sometimes, like the case of capsaicin tolerance, environment can have a greater effect on the outcome than genetics do. Also, different growing conditions of a fruit can cause the fruit to taste different. Genetic engineering can be used to alter a fruit’s ability to survive different growing conditions and can make a fruit, such as superhot chilies, more tolerable for the general public. This can increase consumptions of different kinds of food.
Howlin’ Coyote Chili also focuses on the health and nutrition issues of the customers. Even though Howlin’ Coyote Chili just emphasizes tresses in promotion about taste, convenience, and flexibility, but it is still valuing the health of our customers and put them at the top of our plan. More specifically, our products are lower in calories, fat, and sodium than
Each person has unique preferences for certain tastes and types of food. Some of these preferences are due to environmental factors, while others have genetic components (Yeomans 2010). One such genetically influenced trait is the ability to taste phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). PTC was discovered by accident in 1931 by colleagues Arthur Fox and C. R. Noller. While working in the laboratory, dust from the PTC bottle flew around and Noller complained of the bitter taste while Fox noticed nothing. The two then tried the crystals and observed a distinct difference in their ability to taste PTC. Fox proceeded to investigate this phenomenon and determined that he found both tasters and non-tasters within varied groups of individuals (Fox 1932). PTC has since been a topic of wide interest within fields as diverse as genetics, psychophysiology, ecology, evolution, nutrition, and science education (Wooding 2006). Due to the fact that the phenotype is nearly impossible to guess until explicitly tested, yet once tested quite striking, it has often been used to spice up educational lessons (Wooding 2006).
The chile pepper is a vegetable that has been a part of Americas history. Chile peppers haave been a part of the human's diet for as long as 7500BC. Chiles are used in many Mexican and South American cuisines as whole peppers and also grinded into spaces. In Jimmy Santiago Baca's poem "Green Chile," he refers to green chiles to represent his memories of home. Jimmy Santiago Baca is a mix of Chicano and Apache origins. At the age of two, both of Baca's parents abandoned him (Poets.org). After he was abandoned by his parents, he lived with his grandparents until he was thirteen. It was during this time with his grandmother that inspires the story in "Green Chile." When Baca was 21, he was convicted of drug possession and was incarcerated. It was when he was incarcerated where he learned to read and write. In "Green Chile," Baca tells a narrative story about his grandmother cooking green chile. Jimmy Santiago Baca uses his earliest memories of his grandmother cooking green chiles to show his appreciation of his cultural traditions while also using the green chile to signify a sense of maturity.
The essay Eating Chili Peppers, written by Jeremy MacClancy, is a description essay. This author demonstrates a concise descriptive nature using a very fixed vantage point. It is clear to any reader what the author’s opinion of eating chili peppers is. The writer uses various similes to ignite the reader’s senses and leave a dominant impression. For example, “Biting into a tabasco pepper is like aiming a flame-thrower at your parted lips” (287) and “Tears stripe your cheeks, and your mouth belches fire like a dragon celebrating its return to life” (287).
The United States is the country that gives its citizens freedom, but is that really true? Freedom is when an individual has the right to do or say whatever they believe in without restraint. If that is so, why are certain individuals facing problems because of how they dress, where they are from, and even because of what they believe in. That is because ‘Racism’ exist in our country. It exist in our country because there is one group which most people refer to “White”, which some believe are superior than everybody else. This is a problem we as a country are facing because instead of being “United”, we are separating and categorising. Some people will say racism doesn't exist, but I believe it does and there are readings that prove it.
Pamela Ronald, a plant geneticist, presented a Ted Talk “The case for engineering our food”, Ronald points out that engineered genetics for our plants is not harmful, yet better for our environment and health. “Now, genetic modification is not new; virtually everything we eat has been genetically modified in some manner”(Ronald).
I don’t really like chiles, but because of the many benefits it gives, my point of view about chiles have changed and my connection with it builds up . The Joy of Jalapeños, an essay that demonstrates the culture, history, Burciaga’s personal involvement about the jalapeños and health benefits of the chiles, is written by Jose Antonio Burciaga, an author and Chicanismo expert. And through his own experiences, and thoughtful and careful examination of scientific evidence about the health benefits of a jalapeño, Burciaga have persuaded me into consuming more jalapeños.
I don’t really like chiles, but because it bears a lot of health benefits, my mindset with the chiles have changed. “The Joy of Jalapeños” written by Jose Antonio Burciaga, an author and a Chicanismo expert, is an essay that talks about the author’s personal relation with the jalapeños, where he demonstrates the various kinds of health benefits of the chiles, the Chicano’s masochistic cuisine and culture, and his own analysis about it. And through his own experiences, and thoughtful and careful examination of scientific evidence about the health benefits of a jalapeños, Burciaga have persuaded me into consuming more jalapeños.
...m, combining it with genes from food and plants to create a completely unique flavor. HEK-293 is surely a ground breaking and controversial topic for the food and biotech industries and the science remains elusive to most of the world. (Martinelli,Karbarz, Gribaudo)
Located in South America on the Pacific Coast lies a country named Peru, which offers one of the world’s greatest cuisines. The country of Peru is exquisitely diverse with geography containing the Andes Mountains and highlands, the tropical/Amazon Basin and the coast. All of which contribute significantly to the Peruvian cuisine. Peruvian cuisine is a unique blending of Andean and Spanish cultures over 500 years, mixed with Japanese, Chinese, African, Arab, and other influences (Cayo, 33). With the cuisine being a fusion of many different cultures, it retains unique elements of each and creates a distinct cuisine of its own making it unmatched in its diversity and individuality. The best part of Peruvian cuisine is the similarities in the cuisine over the last several hundreds of years.
Janick. J. (2011). Center for New Crops & Plant Products - Department of Horticulture and
Lafourie, J. (2012). Agricultores muy asustados por TLC con Estados Unidos. Dinero.com. Retrieved from http://www.dinero.com/negocios/articulo/agricultores-muy-asustados-tlc-estados-unidos/151296
The term GM foods or GMO (genetically-modified organisms) is most commonly used to refer to crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques (Whitman, 2000). These plants have been modified in the laboratory to offer desired traits such as increased resistance to herbicides or improved nutritional content. Also, genetic engineering techniques have been applied to create plants with the exact desired trait very rapidly and accurately. For example, this is done by the geneticist isolating the gene responsible for drought tolerance and inserts it into another plant. The new genetically-modified plant will now have gained drought tolerance as well.
Because no cooking could be done at their house, they ate at Sadhu’s. The food was unsalted as soon as he began to chew, Mr. Biswas felt he was eating raw flesh and the nauseous saliva filled his mouth again. He hurried outside to empty his mouth and clean it, but the taste remained. (Naipaul 33-34)
The experiments we conducted studied the effect of different temperatures on germinating beans and how effective the cellular respiration of these beans are under these varying conditions. We performed two experiments, the first with temperature at 22ºC and the second with the temperature at 13ºC, both as the independent variable. Then, we measured the amount of carbon dioxide and oxygen from the bean container as the dependent variable. Our hypothesis was that the germinating beans respiration would be most effective at the room temperature. Our null hypothesis was that temperature wouldn’t have any effect on the germinating bean's respiration ability. Our resulting data rejected our null hypothesis in that temperature definitely affected the germinating beans effectiveness at respiration, and in fact the most effective temperature were the same as the temperatures the beans would naturally be conducting cellular respiration at, 22ºC.