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Takis are a brand of corn tortilla chips vended by Mexico-based Barcel and known for its spicy hotness: An item that began circulating on the Internet in June 2013 presents a first-person account of a woman who took her ten-year-old daughter to an urgent care facility for treatment of extreme stomach distress, where a physician reportedly suggested the daughter's consumption of Takis was the cause of her stomach pains (even though the mother stated her daughter consumed just 3 small bags of Takis a month). Additionally, according to this account, the physician asserted that the harsh chemicals and seasoning in the chips cause corrosion in the throat and stomach, that Takis are causing stomach ulcers in children, and that she was currently treating a 16-month-old patient for throat cancer brought about by the toddler's consumption of Takis: We consulted with some urgent care pediatricians of our acquaintance who told us that they had never treated, or heard of, any cases of children developing severe stomach pains linked to the consumption of Takis. Moreover, they said, no credible doctor would definitively pronounce that consumption of one type of food (or any other single factor) had caused a particular case of cancer — although relationships have been established between certain risk factors and the onset of cancer, no given case of cancer can be reliably attributed to one identifiable cause. Some reports indicate that cases of children developing stomach aches after eating Takis and similar snack foods are known, but that the issue seems to be linked to children consuming those snacks in immoderate and excessive amounts far beyond the 3 small bags a month referenced in the above account: As well, some physicians have noted that children have been taken to emergency rooms after eating Takis and similar snacks not because they were ill, but because their excessive consumption of those snacks resulted in misinterpreted symptoms: However, some critics maintain that children commonly over-consume such snack foods because the foods themselves are engineered to promote that behavior: The bottom line remains that children should avoid spicy snack foods and other processed snacks in large quantities in order to avoid gastritis and other health risks, but no solid evidence indicates that moderate consumption of such snack foods puts youngsters at risk for stomach ulcers or cancer. Takis' parent company, Barcel, did not respond to our request for additional information on this topic.
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