The benefits of eating spicy food
From: Harvard
School of Public Health
Regular spicy food eaters are also less likely to die from cancer,
heart, and respiratory diseases than those who eat spicy foods infrequently.
“The findings are highly novel,” said Lu Qi, associate
professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School
of Public Health and Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, and the study’s co-lead author.
“To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first reporting a
link between spicy food intake and mortality.”
The researchers looked at health and dietary data gathered from
487,375 people, ages 30-79, who were enrolled between 2004-2008 in
the China Kadoorie Biobank.
Participants with a history of cancer, heart disease,
and stroke were excluded from the study. During a median follow-up of 7.2
years, there were 11,820 deaths among men and 8,404 deaths among women.
The results showed that regular consumption of spicy food was
linked to lowered mortality among both men and women after adjustment for other
known or potential risk factors.
The researchers found that the association was stronger in people
who did not drink alcohol than in those who drank.
Fresh and dried chili peppers were the most commonly used spices
reported by the Chinese study population.
Capsaicin and other bioactive ingredients in chili peppers have
been found in previous studies to have anti-obesity, antioxidant,
anti-inflammation, and anticancer properties, but the authors caution that more
research is needed to determine if there is a direct link between these
ingredients and lowered risk of death.