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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

#81
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.

So no tomatoes, potatoes, or bell peppers for you either?

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

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegetables and meat are lower in carbs than rice, potatoes, pasta, bread etc

One little correction -> Meat has zero carbs. All kinds of meat.

I don't believe that's strictly correct.

Muscles contain glycogen, Wikipedia tells me [0], at a concentration of 1-2% by mass.

That shouldn't really be dietarily relevant, but you did say zero carbs.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycogen

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

#84

I am not a trained statistician, so can someone help me understand why this is even publishable? I read the abstract and found they quote their key statistic at P = 0.01. The "NHANES III" study that their data comes from has over 1000 variables. Can't you just cherry-pick a handful of "significant" variables at the P = 0.01 level, when there are 1000 variables to choose from?

Yes. They could also cherry pick an outcome variable (eg diastolic blood pressure etc).

Given that they haven't applied any multiple testing correction (eg bonferroni or fdr) it's basically impossible to NOT find a significant association in this dataset.

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

#86
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One little correction -> Meat has zero carbs. All kinds of meat.

I don't believe that's strictly correct. Muscles contain glycogen, Wikipedia tells me [0], at a concentration of 1-2% by mass. That shouldn't really be dietarily relevant, but you did say zero carbs. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycogen

There Is no glycogen in meat from the store, glycogen quickly breaks down after death.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nutrition/comments/354ho4/if_glycog...

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

#88
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.

I wonder if there is also a correletion to UCLA's earlier findings http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/latinos-age-slower-than-ot... including staple diets of mostly new world foods or perhaps it can also be attributed to heterosis.

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

#89
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.

Yeah, the whole solanum family increase reflux in a lot of people, some worse than others. I save my allowance for spicy peppers, and simply don't miss aubergines, potatoes (I eat yams instead), tomatoes, and perhaps related, I'm extremely tobacco-sensitive.

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

#90
post #40

It's probably a trivial matter, but is anyone else confused as to why the color red is cited throughout the article? Presumably the color of the peppers has nothing to do with the findings. Right?

The red (green and yellow) color of peppers is due to various carotenoids -- pigments such lutein and zeaxanthin -- which are considered to be central to whatever is particularly healthy about eating plenty of "leafy green" vegetables (and carrots). These nutrients are also highly concentrated in non 'hot' peppers like paprika. They could be involved in the studies results and really deserved a mention.
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