Spicy food lovers of the world rejoice, the news we’ve been waiting for is finally here.
A new study from China has found that people who eat a lot of spicy food are actually increasing their life expectancy – eating spicy meals between 3-7 days a week reduces your risk of death by 14%.
Researchers examined the diets of about 500,000 people, aged between 35 and 79, over seven years. Fresh chillies were found to have more health benefits than dry or powdered chilli, those who consumed them fresh were found to have a lower risk of death from cancer, diabetes and ischaemic heart disease.
Kevin McConway, a professor of applied statistics at the Open University, has warned British people not to get too excited, though.
He said:
Maybe this is something in the way spices are used in Chinese cooking, or [it is] related to other things people eat or drink with the spicy food. Maybe it has something to do with the sort of people, in China, who tend to eat more spicy food.
The Chinese population that they studied is different from the population in Britain, in terms of cooking practices, social relations, health care systems, genetics, and a lot else.
I’ll still be eating extra chilli with everything, Kevin, you killjoy.
