Flamin' Hot Lips!

Late in 2000, I made a significant dietary discovery: Flamin' Hot Cheetos! To me, they were something new. However, some research I did shows that they actually came into existence in 1992. I don't know why I never saw them before, but I never really was much into Cheetos as a regular snack. I remember as a child, if my family was grilling hamburgers, I would put a few Cheetos on mine to make it a cheeseburger. (For some reason, we never had cheese slices on our cookouts.)

When I was in a snacky mood one day at work, I saw Flamin' Hot Cheetos in the vending machine. I decided to give them a try. There was definitely truth in advertising here. They were HOT! I'm usually not too impressed with a lot of foods that claim to be spicy, but I was taken aback by this. Flamin' Hot Cheetos suddenly became my new favorite snack.

The vending machine was usually stocked with them, so I wound up eating a bag every day. I looked forward to my break time, when I would buy a single-serving sized bag and enjoy.

After a couple of weeks, I noticed I was having an issue with my mouth. My lips were starting to chap and peel. I didn't know what was going on. After a couple of days, it got worse and I realized that the fine red powder from the Cheetos was probably seeping under the skin around my mouth. Even though I washed my hands and wiped my mouth every day after eating them, I wasn't removing all the powder. That hot chili concoction was irritating the tender areas of my face!

I had no choice but to stop eating them, at least on a daily basis. I felt like I was going through withdrawal when I couldn't have my daily fix. But my lips returned to normal after about a week. I could still enjoy the Flamin' Hot Cheetos every once in awhile, but I knew I could never go back to eating them every day.

I did find a somewhat suitable substitute with the Chester's Flamin' Hot Fries. They had the same flavor and the powder didn't come off of them like they did the Cheetos. But I never found them as satisfying. And it was so hard to go back to regular Cheetos. They just tasted so bland now.

Research I've done shows that some people who have eaten a lot of them saw their stools turn red and they thought they were bleeding. There were other gastric issues that were written about in articles. But everything I saw made no indication that people got chapped lips from them. Was I the only one this happened to?

So I only eat the Flamin' Hot version about once every few months. I'd HATE to see what my mouth would have looked like if I had continued to eat them every day.

(And I should add that the story behind Flamin' Hot Cheetos is pretty interesting. Click here to read an article.)