Eating curries could help you live longer

Co-author of this study and associate professor at Harvard School of Public Health, Lu Qi told that, “There is accumulating evidence from mostly experimental research to show the benefit of spices or their active components on human health”.

The source of dietary spiciness seemed to make a difference, the researchers found. Among the study volunteers, those who reported eating fresh chili peppers saw a stronger link between the frequency of spice consumption and the risk of death due to cancer, heart disease and diabetes than did volunteers who ate only dried chili pepper, chili sauce, chili oil or other spices, according to the study.

Fresh chilli is packed full of nutrients, vitamins and capsaicin, which are thought to fight cancer, inflammation and obesity.

Each time you drizzle Tabasco on your food, ask for kimchi top-ups and munch on fresh chillies, you may be lowering your risk of death, new research suggests.

They were enrolled between 2004 and 2008, and their health monitored for an average of seven years.

In women, it also corresponded with a reduced risk of death from infections. During a median follow-up of 7.2 years, there were 20,224 deaths.

The findings were similar for both men and women, but higher for those who don’t drink alcohol.

To try to get a better handle on some of these questions, an worldwide group of researchers turned to 487,375 people who were participating in the China Kadoorie Biobank study, an effort that aims to track the causes of chronic diseases in the world’s most populous country. From these people who had suffered from heart disease, cancer and strokes were excluded.

And those 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”.

But Dr Nita Forouhi, of the University of Cambridge, said it was still too early to tell whether it was the food itself, or other behaviours of those eating it, which was causing the effect.

Of course, these studies are preliminary so there is no way of knowing what will come of these results.

A study analysed the food habits and health details of almost half a million Chinese people.