New Study Suggests Spicy Foods Will Help You Live Longer

DENVER (CBS4) - An article recently published in the BMJ researched the relation spicy foods have with mortality. It studied nearly 500,000 men and women over seven years, across geographically diverse areas of China.

The study says spices have been documented to improve health, from red pepper decreasing appetite to the antibacterial property in spices that positively affect gut microbiota.

With this knowledge, researchers examined the effect of regularly consuming spicy foods in a daily diet.

Researchers found that spicy food consumption showed highly consistent associations with a longer life. Specifically, those who ate spicy foods six or seven days a week showed a 14% risk reduction in death.

Spicy food consumption was associated with a reduction in risks of death due to cancer, heart diseases, and respiratory diseases throughout the population studied. These results were stronger for those who used fresh chili rather than non-fresh.

In women, more frequent consumption of spicy food was also associated with decreasing the risk of death from infections.

The association between spicy foods and longevity was greater for those who did not consume alcohol than for those who did.

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