Chilies Can Spice Up Your Longevity, Study

Spicy food, especially fresh chili, reduces death, says a Chinese study, according to gmanetwork.

However, more research is needed to confirm the point, which might go on to "updated dietary recommendations." Published in The BMJ journal, scientists collected dietary data from nearly 490,000 people, aged 30 to 79, in China. They had been enrolled between 2004 and 2008, while their health was monitored for seven years. During the study, about 20,000 participants had died.

A questionnaire data was given to "half a million adults" in the China Kadoorie Biobank study. Each person reported their "health status, alcohol consumption, spicy food consumption, main source of chili intake (fresh or dried, in a sauce or in an oil) as well as meat and vegetable consumption", according to time.

"Compared with participants who ate spicy foods less than once a week, those who consumed spicy foods one or two days a week were at a 10 percent reduced risk of death," said a statement from The BMJ.

Patients who regularly ate the spice "had a relative 14 percent lower risk of death compared to those who consumed spicy foods less than once a week."

Both men and women exhibited similar results. The result was stronger in those who did not have drinking habits.

Those who ate fresh and dried chili peppers showed a greater association, according to the team led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

Capsaicin, one of the ingredients in the spice showed "anti-obesity, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammation and anti-cancer properties" that could have led to longer lives.

The team urged "further prospective studies in other populations," that may lead to dietary recommendations" and "development of functional foods, such as herbal supplements."

However, let us not jumpt to conclusions, said Kevin McConway of the Open University.

"If people who eat spicy food more often have lower death rates, that might indeed be caused by the chilli eating, or it might be caused by something different that is related to eating chillis and also, separately, happens to promote health.

"Maybe this is something in the way spices are used in Chinese cooking, or related to other things people eat or drink with the spicy food. Maybe it has something to do with the sort of people, in China, who tend to eat more spicy food."

Those who consumed more chilli were more likely to live in rural areas, said the study.