Spice Up Your Diet For A Longer Life, Study Suggests

[Purveyor]

By KAREN KAPLAN

If you like eating spicy foods, researchers have some good news: You’re likely to have more years to enjoy them.

Compared to people who ate spicy foods less than once a week, those who at them at least three to five times per week were 14% less likely to die while they were being tracked by the international research team. In addition, those who ate spicy meals once or twice a week were 10% less likely to die during the study period, according to a report published this week in the medical journal BMJ.

Scientists have long recognized that spices have beneficial health effects. In particular, capsaicin – the ingredient that gives chili peppers their bite – has been shown to fight inflammation, high blood pressure, obesity and cancer, among other ills. Experts also speculate that the antibacterial properties of spices might improve health by influencing the community of microbes in the gut.

To try to get a better handle on some of these questions, an international group of researchers turned to 487,375 people who were participating in the China Kadoorie Biobank study, an effort that aims to track the causes of chronic diseases in the world’s most populous country. All of the participants were between the ages of 30 and 79 when they entered the study, and they were tracked for an average of 7.2 years.

Upon joining the study, the volunteers answered detailed questions about their health history, lifestyle choices and eating habits – including how often they ate spicy foods. The researchers synced up their answers with death records to see whether they could find any correlations between spice consumption and causes of death.

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http://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-sn-spicy-foods-and-risk-of-death-20150804-story.html

[Juicy_Bellows]

1. Well there is one good thing I do to my body!

The Holy Trinity - Sriracha, Tapatio and original Tabasco.

Of course I use many others but they are my culinary religion.

Try mixing in a little original Tabasco with your soy sauce on sushi - other than the odd look you'll get pulling a bottle of 'basco out of your bag in the restaurant - you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Prism]

2. Wasabi popcorn is the bane of my existence

So delicious . . . and why is water suddenly pouring out of my scalp?!

Whatever. Is noms.

[RadiationTherapy]

3. I have been adding cayenne to black, herbal, and fruit teas for years.

I usually use it to help with congestion and sore throat when I am sick. I guess I will drink more!

[pnwmom]

4. Unfortunately, there's a question of causality here.

Many of the people who avoid spicy foods have to do so for health reasons.

So if sicker people are avoiding spices for health reasons, then their lower life expectancy might have more to do with being sick than with the spice.

[onehandle]

5. Years ago I gave up heavy fats, especially animal fats.

I replaced the sensation of fat taste with spicy tastes, which I had not been a big fan of previously.

Chili peppers, horseradish, wasabi, and other spices do the trick.