This would be a good news for most Malaysian who are fans of spicy foods!
According to the New York Times, a British Medical Journal study finds that eating spicy food is associated with a reduced risk for death. Researchers followed more than 485,000 Chinese in reasonable health for an average of more than seven years, studying their well-being and the types of food they ate.
The researchers found that compared with eating hot food, mainly chili peppers, less than once a week, having it once or twice a week resulted in a 10 percent reduced overall risk for death. Consuming spicy food six to seven times a week reduced the risk by 14 percent.
The researchers believe this correlation occurs because of the bioactive ingredients in hot pepper, and fresh chilies have higher levels of capsaicin (which had been found in other studies to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects), vitamin C, and other nutrients.
Nevertheless, according to co-author, Dr. Lu Qi, an associate professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, “We need more evidence, especially from clinical trials, to further verify these findings and we are looking forward to seeing data from other populations.”
Source: [1]
