If you like spicy foods, you may well live longer. That's one of the main findings of a study by a team of scientists from the Larner School of Medicine at the University of Vermont. Consumption – in moderation, but on a regular basis – of certain varieties of chili peppers, chili peppers or hot peppers reduces mortality in deaths related to strokes and heart disease by between 13% and 14%.
This is not the first time this issue has been addressed. Research by the Peking University Center for Health Sciences and published in 2015 in the British Medical Journal already suggested that there was a relationship between longevity and spicy consumption. In fact, it has traditionally been thought that it was beneficial in the treatment of different ailments . Now, the work of the experts of the aforementioned American institution, which has taken into account the habits of 16,000 people over 23 years and appears in the publication PLOS ONE , comes to corroborate it.
Although the exact mechanism that explains this phenomenon is not known with certainty , researchers suspect that it is involved in receptors for agents that cause burning sensation, such as capsaicin, the compound responsible for the aforementioned foods bite. Apparently, it has antimicrobial properties, alters the intestinal microbiota and plays a decisive role in various molecular and cellular mechanisms that help prevent obesity and regulate blood flow in the coronary arteries .
