OVER-SPICED FOODS
 
Ailment: Consumption of hot peppers beyond spice tolerance level leading to several minutes of pain.

Odd Cure: Consumption of 50/50 mixture of milk and olive oil.

Rationale:  The burn associated with hot peppers is due to a molecule called capsaicin. Capsaicin is a hydrophobic molecule, which means that it behaves like oil and does not mix with water. For this reason, a milk-olive oil mixture provides a solution that effectively washes away the irritating capsaicin much faster than water or even milk alone. A link to short experiment describing this concept in greater detail is provided here (ref). It is believed that whole milk would be more efficient than skim milk due to the addition fats. 		 
     

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