Nutritionaly Chillis are:

• Low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol, and Sodium
• High in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Potassium, Copper, Manganese, Dietary Fiber, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folate, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus

The nutritional value and health benefits of chilli makes it ideal for:

• Maintaining optimum health
• Weight loss

Don't include too many chillis in your diet if you're interested in:

• Weight gain

Once the dish is prepared and it is too hot, there are several things you can try depending on what the food is...cooking cubed potatoes in the soup can absorb some of the extra chile oils that cause the heat and help take the heat level down. Then remove and discard the potatoes. Taste to see if that removed enough for you to be able to eat.

Adding fats will help dilute the oils that hold the capsaicin better than adding liquids will. Since oil and water don't mix, water-based liquids don't help, so add extra oil, dairy to make a cream soup, cheese, or other fats. If you don't want to eat the fats, then refrigerate the soup and let the fat harden and then scoop it out and it will take some of the capsaicin with it.

Or, give the soup to friends who love hot things! Freeze it and save it for them, they will love you for it.

In the future, since chiles can vary greatly from pepper to pepper in how hot they are depending on growing conditions, start with half the amount of chiles called for in a recipe and gradually add more as you taste to adjust. You can also remove the membranes from the chiles before adding them to the recipe, which is where the capsaicin is (the heat is not from the seeds as is a popular misconception...see below).

More information on the heat in chiles:

Many people believe that the seeds make a pepper hot, but actually they contain little to no capsaicin (the compound that makes the chile "hot"). The poor seeds are getting a bum rap. It is guilt by association...the seeds are attached to the membranes that are the hottest part of a chile and they get the oils from that membrane on them which makes them only seem to be the source. The membranes that hold the seeds inside the chiles are the hottest parts with the most capsaicin. You will note that the stem end, where much of this membrane is attached, is much hotter than the tip of any chile. Capsaicin binds to receptors in the mouth that send signals to the brain to tell it that the tissue is "burning", however, it is just a sensation of the burn, there is not any actual tissue damage from capsaicin in capsicum (peppers/chiles).

"Antidotes"-- help when you bite off more than you can chew:

Try a bite of a banana, it works best for me and many of my chilehead friends..

Water will only spread the oils around in your mouth and make it worse; bread or crackers can help by absorbing the oils that contain the capsaicin; or try sour cream, sweet cream, milk or cheese, the casein in dairy products helps to neutralize the effect. Additionally, the fats in all of the above mentioned dairy products (and especially the higher fat dairy products like premium ice cream) mix with the oils from the chile and dilute the effect.

Alcohol might work to dissolve the oils a bit, but the burn of the alcohol itself adds to the unpleasant sensations rather than removing them (but drink enough of it and you may not care any more).

Banana is a tried and true "antidote" for me and people I know. We have tested it side by side and found it to be better than the other "remedies" tested at the same time with the same chiles. Why it works is not yet clear, but it does...just try it next time (or serve them along with your soup that got too hot for you this time).