Will eating more chilis help you live longer?

I have to admit it: it can be hard to take news about the latest healthy diet too seriously. There seems to be an endless list of recommendations about food choices, but little consensus. It’s enough to confuse even the most careful reader of health news. For a long while, low-fat diets ruled. But, then came the paleo diet, the keto diet, the LA diet, the South Beach diet, the Mediterranean diet, and many others — including diets around which entire companies are based (such as Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and NutriSystem). Eggs were terrible; now they’re okay (in moderation, of course). There are cleanses, detoxes, and foods to fight inflammation. Still, one of the newer entries into the deluge of nutrition news may seem like one of the unlikeliest: chili pepper. Time to spice up your diet? According to a new report, chili pepper in your diet could lower your risk of dying of cancer or cardiovascular disease, and could also promote longevity. The analysis included data from more than a half a million people in multiple countries. When compared with people who never or rarely ate chili pepper, those who ate it regularly had lower rates of death due to cardiovascular disease (by 26%), cancer (by 23%), or any cause (by 25%). While findings from this report might seem too good to be true, they build on the publication of several other studies linking health benefits to chili pepper consumption. For example, this study found that people who consumed chili pepper four or mo...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Healthy Aging Healthy Eating Heart Health Hypertension and Stroke Nutrition Source Type: blogs