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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

#31

Nice! Given the level of capsicin contained in my blood, I can then declare I'm immortal:) Seriously, this is something I heard many many years ago. Don't know if it's just a popular belief or something proved scientifically but I had many people tell me that eating hot pepper is very good for health. Roughly the same for garlic.

Around here (Western Europe) I've never heard or seen anyone say they believed spicy food was healthy. I mostly got told too much of it is bad for your liver, though I don't know how well proven that is either.

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

#32
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.

Agreed. I love hot food, but I don't eat it anymore. Peppers are very bad to me. But not nearly as bad as eggplant. Nightshades are legitimately toxic.

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

#33
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 :)

Jokes aside, it seems to me that anything to which a healthy adult needs to develop a tolerance is not one that is intrinsically healthful.

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

#34
post #19

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)

Ok, so I do work alongside people that do these food studies (coffee, wine, chocolate, etc). I myself do not do these studies, but I do know a few people that do. None of the scientists are trying to deceive the public. Nor are they trying very hard to get out a publication. Peer review for these, and for most paper, really works.

The issue here is the press. These little studies show a very narrow and tightly controlled (with rare exception) effect, and if you read these papers, the effect is usually very small or only for certain age ranges of mice. However, when the press release comes out, these caveats are totally ignored or buried at the end of the press article that the univ releases. This is usually accompanied by very pretty pictures of the PI that never touched the bench in a lab coat that has the name of a lab tech stitched onto it. That then gets spun around to a local news outlet that may or may not tell you about the limits of the study. If you are 'lucky' then you have a major news outlet pick it up and just copy/paste most of it and leave even more out. Then the blogs get a hand on it and somehow your buddies that made the original study are being accused of being lizard people working for the moon god Tsath-Satha. All along the way it gets distorted and the general public is rightfully confused.

Honestly, the blame lies with the researchers. We are where the 'buck stops'. That we allow the press to say these things and distort the work so much harms us and makes us less trustworthy the public that we are working to help. How to stop this is something that we could use help with.

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

#35

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?

https://www.amazon.com/Tropical-Pepper-Company-Ghost-Jolokia...

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

#36
post #3
post #2

Will I live longer, or not? Are hot peppers good for my health, or not? Is the mechanism known, or not? Are they recommended by experts, or not?

Did you RTFA, or not? There are some possible explanations for red chili peppers’ health benefits, state Chopan and Littenberg in the study. Among them are the fact that capsaicin – the principal component in chili peppers – is believed to play a role in cellular and molecular mechanisms that prevent obesity and modulate coronary blood flow, and also possesses antimicrobial properties that “may indirectly affect the…

No no. That's only a 'possible' explanation. In articles such as these you'll find plenty of 'may'-s, 'might'-s, 'can'-s and 'further research'-s.

The vagueness and intellectual cowardice are exasperating. Don't be afraid to call it out when correlations are two-a-penny and funding is at stake. There are problems crying out for research.

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

#37

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

Eg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1854_Broad_Street_cholera_ou...

If there is no correlation there is no issue.

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

#38
post #32
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.

Agreed. I love hot food, but I don't eat it anymore. Peppers are very bad to me. But not nearly as bad as eggplant. Nightshades are legitimately toxic.

Well, most nightshades are toxic, and some people are allergic to all nightshades. But it's not correct to say that "nightshades are toxic".

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

#39

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.

This one?

http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(06)01534-0

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