According to a professor of horticulture, Paul Bosland, at NM State University, really hot peppers could potentially kill you, but you would have to eat about three pounds of extreme chiles.

That's not to say that eating a lot of hot chile peppers won't make you sick. You can easily get sick if you overwhelm your body with too much capsaicin.

Capsaicin is the hot part of the pepper. The amount of it has been measured so that you know approximately how hot a pepper will be.

In my last year of blogging, I have gone from very mild dishes to being able to handle more heat. I feel like experimenting is really the way to go. Do things in a gradual manner.

Currently, the hottest pepper in the world is the Carolina Reaper. To put it in perspective, it's about 1000 times hotter than a jalapeño. One Thousand.

The Carolina Reaper was created by Ed Currie who says: "When you bite into it, the initial taste is sweet. You go, wow, that wasn't so bad. And then immediately, that vast amount of capsaicin takes over and it's kind of like eating molten lava."

Little red, wrinkly, evil demons. Even a habanero doesn't come close.

Have a look at 24Bite to see where your favorite pepper fits into the chile pepper capsaicin scale and check how it compares to the Carolina Reaper.

I have learned, from eating Mexican food, that the best way to cool off a hot tongue is to get some dairy.

You can drink milk, add Mexican crema or even grab a spoonful of cold, creamy yogurt.

My rule of thumb for cooking is that you can't taste the dish if the peppers are so hot that they mask the other flavors.