Eating Chilli Peppers Four Times A Week Reduces Risk Of Death From Heart Attack, Study Finds

20th Television/ New Line Cinema

You’d think eating chilli peppers would potentially increase your chances of dying from a heart attack, but a new study has found it actually decreases it. 

The study was carried out in Italy, and compared the risk of death among 23,000 people over eight years. It revealed the risk of dying from a heart attack was 40% lower among those eating chilli peppers at least four times a week, while death from stroke was more than halved as well.

The study also suggested the beneficial properties of chilli had been passed down through Italian diet and culture.

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Study lead author Marialaura Bonaccio, an epidemiologist at the Mediterranean Neurological Institute (Neuromed), said:

An interesting fact is that protection from mortality risk was independent of the type of diet people followed.

In other words, someone can follow the healthy Mediterranean diet, someone else can eat less healthily, but for all of them chilli pepper has a protective effect.

The research, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, also touched upon a previous, similar study done in 2015 based on 500,000 Chinese men and women, which found those who ate spicy food on a daily basis was associated with a 14% decrease in morality in general, and a 22% reduction in ischaemic heart disease.

In 2017 it was also found there was a correlation between Americans who ate chilli peppers with a 13% decrease in mortality.

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However, the US diet was so bad that a report done in 2015 by the American Heart Association found only 0.1% of the population had a ‘healthy diet’ – so maybe Americans need more than a few chilli peppers a week to lower their mortality rates and heart disease risks…

Licia Iacoviello, director of the department of epidemiology and prevention at Neuromed and a professor at the University of Insubria in Varese, explained that the beneficial properties of chilli had been passed down through Italian food culture.

Iacoviello said:

And now, as already observed in China and in the United States, we know that the various plants of the capsicum species, although consumed in different ways throughout the world, can exert a protective action towards our health.

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Duane Mellor, a registered dietitian and senior teaching fellow at Aston Medical School in the UK, said the paper is ‘interesting’ but ‘does not show a causal link’ between chilli consumption and health benefits.

Mellor said the positive effect of chilli consumption observed in the study could be attributed to how the peppers are used in an overall diet.

He said:

It is plausible people who use chillies, as the data suggests also used more herbs and spices, and as such likely to be eating more fresh foods including vegetables.

So, although chillies can be a tasty addition to our recipes and meals, any direct effect is likely to be small and it is more likely that it makes eating other healthy foods more pleasurable.

So guys, next time you feel that bead of sweat drip down your face whilst consuming a jalfrezi, remember it’s for the greater good of your heart (as well as your taste buds).

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Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.