Spicy Foods Linked with Lower Mortality

Spicy foods are prominent in many traditional cultures throughout the world. To see if spicy food consumption is related to death risk, scientists asked over 487,000 Chinese adults about their spicy food intake, and then monitored their death rates over the next 7 years. Compared to those eating spicy foods (mostly chilli peppers) less than once per week, those eating spicy foods once or twice a week had a 10% lower risk of death from all causes, while those eating spicy foods 3-7 times per week had a 14% lower risk of death from all causes. Spicy foods were also linked with a lower risk of death from cancer, heart disease, and respiratory disease, specifically. This association might possibly be related to capsaicin, a beneficial compound in chilli peppers that has antioxidant properties.
British Medical Journal. 2015 August 4;351:h3942. (Lv J et al.)