Report: Spicy Snacks Sending More Children To Emergency Room

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — When it comes to snack time for kids, things are heating up, and doctors say that could be a bad thing.

The publication Medical Daily keeps track of why people visit the emergency room, and they report a trend of kids coming in complaining of stomach pain from eating too many spicy snacks.

Longtime Sacramento Pediatrician Dr. Daniel McCrimons says he isn't surprised.

"The stomach ache will mimic what could be something very dangerous," he said.

McCrimons says the combination of dyes, sale and monosodium glutamate in the snacks could be the perfect gastrointestinal storm when consumed in large amounts.

"It's a combination of not so much excess spice, but that the processing in the foods has become a little more accelerated," he said.

Not to mention, these can be addictive.

"Craving is definitive, and that's what happens with this MSG and the effect on the brain to want to have more of it," he said.