Good news for chili chompers : on a regular basis chowing down on blue food isassociated with a lower risk of exposure of death , peculiarly if you stay aside from spirits . But before you start drowning your cheerios in tabasco sauce ,   it ’s unclear at this stage whether it is the spicy intellectual nourishment itself or some other factor that is potentially bestowing the keep benefits . disregardless , further research is warranted , and the finding append to a growing trunk of grounds that chili could be healthful . The study has been published inThe BMJ .

The humanity seems to have an ongoing fixation with unlocking the enigma to seniority . What makes citizenry survive longer , and can we alter our lives to stitch a few years onto our finite timelines ? There is no simple response at this leg ; ageing is incredibly complex , but one cistron that has long been see thecornerstone of health and longevityis dieting .

While we love that eating your greens and grains and avoiding too much kale and process food for thought is the way to go , what about components of food , like spice ? science lab investigation and minuscule universe study have spotlight possible benefits of the active ingredients of various spiciness , and cave in the popularity and far-flung economic consumption of chili in finicky , researchers decided to embark on an impressively large and more rich study to find out more .

Almost half a million adult from 10 geographically diverse areas in China were recruit between 2004 and 2008 and follow for around seven eld . At the start of the field , participants filled in a questionnaire about their spicy food economic consumption habits , including how often they eat up these foods and what spices they tended to contain , like sweet chilly capsicum pepper plant or chili sauce . Data was also collected on numerous other factors and characteristic , such as instruction , alcohol use of goods and services , physical activity and intake of cherry gist and other foods .

After exclude those with a family history of Cancer the Crab , heart disease and stroke , during the accompany - up investigation more than 20,000 of the participant conk . They find that those who ate blue foods one   or two days a hebdomad had a 10 % low peril of end – both overall and from specific causes like cancer – than those who only ate such food less than once per week . Those who consume blue foods almost every day were at a 14 % low mortality risk than infrequent consumer . Although the same trends were seen in both men and women , the relationship was strongest in those who avoided alcohol .

So should we all start shoveling spices to subsist longer ? Not so fast . The discipline has merits due to the large sample size , but also exonerated limitations :   It was throttle to the Formosan population and may therefore not be generalizable ,   it swear on ego - reporting   –   which is not quantitative and can not be validated   –   and study such as this can not infer cause and effect . Furthermore , since it is rare to expend one spice in isolation , it is difficult to point the finger at chilies when it could beanother ingredientcommonly used in conjunction , or even a style of cooking , that is behind the observed relationship .

That being enounce , various prior studies have identifiednumerous possible wellness benefitsof the dynamic compound in chili , capsaicin , which seems to possess antioxidant , anti - cancer , and anti - seditious dimension , to name just a few . The association is therefore plausible , but not confirmed , so further discipline are warranted .