Some like it hot, and a new study finds that folks who favor spicy foods might also have a lower risk of premature death. Participants who ate spicy foods nearly every day had a relative 14 percent lower risk of death compared to those who consumed spicy foods less than once a week.
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The researchers said more studying has to be done to know definitively if spicy food provides a protective effect.
Although the study included almost half a million volunteers who were tracked for a total of 3.5 million person-years, the researchers emphasized that they couldn’t show a causal relationship between eating spicy foods and living longer. While the research is still preliminary, it suggests spicy food may have all kinds of health benefits ranging from boosting metabolism and preventing gastric damage to reducing the risk of heart disease and cancer.
“There are certain foods that are triggers for people with incontinence or overactive bladders, including spicy foods, which doctors have identified as common irritants for women”, Kristen Burns, an adult urology nurse practitioner at Johns Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore, said. The participants were between the ages of 30-79.
But not all causes of death appeared to be influenced by spice consumption, according to the study.
The participants who selected the last three categories were further asked “When you eat spicy foods, what are the main sources of spices usually used?”
Dr. Nita Fourouhi of the University of Cambridge agreed that the study itself is not telling enough whether or not consuming spicy food or other factors are causing people to have a lower risk from premature death.
The link was similar for both men and women.
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It had long been suspected that the bioactive ingredient in spices, capsaicin, had beneficial health effects, so a team of worldwide researchers followed up on these suggestions, publishing their findings this week in The BMJ. They also noted that spices have been shown to have an anti-microbial function that may impact the bacteria that live in your gut in such a way that it helps increase longevity. Lack of alcohol consumption also helped strengthen this association. Forouhi said. “It’s too early to say, but the debate and research interest are certainly hotting up”.
