That delicious penne alla’arrabiata may have benefits that go further than putting a smilen on your face, according to a new study.
For many years, chili has been hailed forbits therapeutic properties,and and now researchers have found that eating chili peppers regularly can cut the riskbof death from heart diseases and stroke.
Carried out of italy, where chili is a common ingredients, that study compared the rest of death among 23000 people, some of home ate chili and somenof home didn’t.
Participants’ heath status and eating habits were monitored over eigth years, and researchers found that the risk of dying from heart attack was 40% lower among those eating chili peppers at least four times per week.
Death from stroke was more than halved, according to the results published monday in the journal of the amerikan college of cardiology.
An interesting fact is that protection from mortality risk was independent of the type of diet people followed; said study lead author Maria laura bonaccios ,an epidemiologist at the mediterranean neurological institute( Neuromed).
In other words some can follow the healthy mediterranean diet, some one else can eat less healthily, but for all of them chili pepper has a protective effect”, she said
The research uses data from the moli- sani study, which has around 25000 participants in the molise region of southern italy. Licia lacoviello, directorbof the department of epidemiology and prevention at neuromes and a professor at the university of insubria in varese, explained that beneficial properties of chili had been passed down through food culture.
And now, as already observed in china and in the united states, we know that the various plants of the capsicum species, although comsumed in different ways throughout the world, can exert a protective action towards our heath”, said lacoviello
The team now plans to investigate the biochemical mechanisms that make chili good for our health.external experts praised the study while pointing out some limitations.
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 chili comsumption and health benefits.
Mellor said the positive effect of chili consumption observed in the study could be attributed to how the peppers are used in an overall diet.
