A teenager in Memphis, Tennessee, recently had her gallbladder removed, and her love of hot chips may be to blame. Rene Craighead, 17, ate around four bags of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Takis, another spicy snack, every week – until she was hospitalized for stomach pains. Her doctor reportedly told her that snacking habits were the reason she is now missing a gallbladder.
Craighead’s mother now wants to warn other spicy chip fans of the potential dangers they face. “When my daughter had to have this surgery, I knew I had to tell everybody about it,” she told WREG, a local Memphis TV station.
Dr Cary Canvender, a gastroenterologist, told WREG that Craighead isn’t the only victim of hot chips. “We do see tons of gastritis and ulcer-related stuff due to [spicy snacks],” he said. “We probably see around 100 kids a month, easily.” He noted that while hot chips alone probably weren’t to blame for the stomach problems he was seeing, they likely contributed.
You can live relatively normally without a gallbladder, but it can be harder to digest food.
Frito-Lay and Takis have released statements claiming their snacks are safe, but should be enjoyed in moderation.
This isn’t the first time that Hot Cheetos and Takis have fired up debate. In 2012, a number of schools across California, New Mexico and Illinois banned the spicy snacks. The main reason cited was the lack of nutritional value, but another concern was the messiness. One middle school teacher complained students were leaving a trail of sticky red fingerprints everywhere they went.
In the past decade, hot chips have become something of a hot property in school. Such is their popularity that a 2012 music video called Hot Cheetos & Takis, produced by children in Minnesota, has racked up more than 16m views.
Hot Cheetos were invented by Richard Montañez, the son of migrant farm workers, while working as a janitor at a Frito-Lay factory in California. According to Montañez, his Eureka moment came when a technical malfunction caused a batch of Cheetos to go un-powdered. According to a 2016 interview with Inc, Montañez thought, “What if I add chili to a Cheeto?” The rest is history.
Earlier this year it was announced that a feature film is being made about Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, celebrating its origin story. Fox Searchlight won the rights to the project, in beating off competition from multiple studios who wanted to produce the film.
