Hot Cheetos, Takis send kids to the doctor
As the snacks have gotten hotter, the symptoms have only gotten worse.
About 100 to 150 Memphis-area children are estimated to visit Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital outpatient clinics with abdominal pain or acid reflux each month, and one of the most common causes is munching on intensely hot snacks.
Spicy foods and belly aches are nothing new, said Dr. Cary Cavender, a Le Bonheur gastroenterologist, but the number of children reporting stomach pain has climbed dramatically in the past five years as neon-red snacks like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Takis tortilla chips have surged in popularity.
“It’s reached the point where almost the first question we as is ‘Have you been eating hot chips?’ Because there are an uncanny number of them that are,” Cavender said Wednesday.
“There is something amazingly addictive about them. The kids just go nuts for them.”
Concern about the health implications of these snacks has spiked recently after widespread reports that a Memphis teenager, Rene Craighead, had to have her gallbladder removed and her mother publicly blamed her four-bag-aweek habit of snacking on Takis and Hot Cheetos. The link is mere speculation – spicy foods haven’t been tied to gallbladder problems and no medical professional has confirmed the cause of Craighead’s gallbladder failure – but Cavender and other doctors have stressed that these hot snacks are at the root of many stomach problems.
Hot Cheetos and Takis ignited the snack world, offering a fiery intensity far greater than the prickly heat of more traditional jalapeno chips and hot fries. Both snacks get their powerful taste from a coating of deep-red seasoning powder that stains fingers and tongues alike.
Popularity of the snacks peaked in 2012 after a YouTube rap video – aptly named “Hot Cheetos and Takis” – went viral, amounting more than a million views in only 20 days. (As of today, it has more than 16 million views.)
Schools started banning both snacks later that year, citing health concerns and a rash of red fingerprints left on lunch tables and hallway walls.
But telling kids what they can’t eat, unsurprisingly, hasn’t worked. Hot Cheetos, Takis, and similar super-seasoned snacks are as popular today as ever.
“It’s not completely new,” said Dr. Samer Ammar, a pediatric gastroenterologist in Nashville, who largely contributes a rise in children’s stomach problems to the rise of hot and spicy snacks.
“Spicy and seasoned snacks have existed for many years, but I think it’s more prevalent now than any other time. And I think the degree of consumption – well, you could call it an outbreak.”
Both Ammar and Cavender said parents sometimes don’t realize that the hot snacks are the culprit behind their children’s stomach problems because the pain doesn’t surface immediately. Generally, snack foods contain the kinds of fat that make them digest slower, the doctors said, so the intense spice powder hangs around in the stomach longer, allowing more time for them to damage to the stomach lining.
“They don’t notice their stomach lining is burned or irritated until maybe six hours later, at which point they’ve eaten other things and don’t associate it with the hot chips,” Cavender said.
“And generally, the kids who are doing this … aren’t eating well-balanced to begin with. But on top of that bad diet, which already has well-known consequences, it is very common that the inciting factor is that they are addicted to these hot chips.”
The companies behind both snacks have defended their products recently. Frito-Lays, the maker of Hot Cheetos, issued a statement saying the popular cheese puffs are safe, but that some people may be “more sensitive to spicy foods than others” and should avoid spicier snacks. A firm representing Takis told Newsweek that “Takis are safe to eat, but should be enjoyed in moderation as part of a well-balanced diet.”