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Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality

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Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality

#22

Post by dxhdr »

tyingq wrote: post #7
klodolph wrote: post #5

I'll posit an additional theory—that people with gastrointestinal problems don't eat spicy food because it causes discomfort. But the other part that the article mentions—eating more vegetables and meats—well, most of the spicy foods I can think of are basically vegetables + meat in a spicy sauce.

Both points seem plausible to me. On the second point, while I wouldn't say "most spicy dishes are healthy"...I might agree that spicy dishes are on average, healthier than some other flavor affinities.

Agreed, spiciness adds minimal additional calories compared to something like a thick cream sauce or sugary hoisin-style sauce. Healthiness isn't a given but seems easier to achieve compared to other popular styles of preparing food.

I'm also curious how spiciness affects satiety. Eating a meal and feeling full afterward is obviously preferable to having constant cravings for more snacks and treats.

Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality

#24

Post by rectangletangle »

ju-st wrote: post #19
mattdeboard wrote: post #11

I look forward to the inevitable study that finds an association between spicy foods and heart disease, or colon cancer, or spontaneous brain tumors, or Lewandowsky-Lutz dysplasia, and recommends reducing intake of aforementioned spicy foods for all humans aged 10-75.

> The report details six studies on rats and mice in which the animals developed signs of cancer in the stomach or liver after their diet was changed to include more capsaicin http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34411492 (2015)

This probably has more to do with mice being an imperfect model organism for humans. A healthy diet for a mouse is different than a healthy diet for a human.

Humans have a particularly robust digestive system, compared to other animals; for instance, we can eat lemons. We could be regarded as highly omnivorous, and extreme generalists. This makes it difficult to model human dietary nature, because many animals can't handle a diet as varied as ours.

As far as mammals go, humans might actually be the most tolerant of a varied diet. This probably stems back to our early days, where scavenging was common. It's pretty apparent that at some point humans underwent intense selective pressure for dietary tolerance. I can't think of another mammal that can regularly eat things as diverse as corn, lemons, and beef, and not die. This makes it really difficult to find a good organism for modeling human dietary behavior. Even our close relatives, like Chimpanzees, would have issues when fed a normal human diet.

Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality

#26

Post by muddyrivers »

kirse wrote: post #25

It's not that huge of a win, roughly 9-10 of that extra 13 percent is spent in the bathroom. Study finds relaxing on the throne decreases mortality?

So hilarious! Got to build up the tolerance so as to enjoy spicy food more and spend less in the bathroom :)

Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality

#27

Post by ngokevin »

mindcrime wrote: post #10

Man, I should live forever then. I love hot peppers. Well, OK, I usually use bottled pepper sauces of various sorts, not whole, fresh peppers themselves. So maybe that doesn't work. But if it's just the capsaicin, then I get plenty of it... jalapeno pepper, cayenne pepper, chipotle pepper, scotch bonnet pepper, habanero pepper, ghost pepper (naga jolokia), trinidad scorpion pepper, carolina reaper peppers... I love '…

Got a favorite sauce?

Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality

#28

Post by lightedman »

mattdeboard wrote: post #11

I look forward to the inevitable study that finds an association between spicy foods and heart disease, or colon cancer, or spontaneous brain tumors, or Lewandowsky-Lutz dysplasia, and recommends reducing intake of aforementioned spicy foods for all humans aged 10-75.

I swear I recall some Canadian study that showed capsaicin to reverse one of the types of diabetes. IIRC it was published in Cell but I can't entirely recall, it was so long ago.

Re: Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality

#29

Post by sfrailsdev »

cardmagic wrote: post #20

Why do people look for correlations any more? Aren't scientists painfully aware of confirmation bias[1] and spurious correlation[2] yet? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias [2] http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

Correlation finding is still an incredibly important first step towards figuring out what would be a good double blind randomized trial. Science media could definitely report correlations better.
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