Study Reveals Health Benefits of Chili Peppers

Eating spicy foods like chili peppers can yield some pretty impressive health benefits, according to a recent study. Researchers at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont found that people who consumed hot red chili peppers on a regular basis were 13% less likely to due than their counterparts who did not consume the spicy peppers

Medical expertsh ave known about the benefits of spicy foods and hot peppers for quite some time. A separate study conducted by researchers in China found similar results. For this more recent study, however, researchers analyzed data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES), which involves more than 16,000 men and women who were closely followed for up to 23 years.

Researchers analyzed this data, looking specifically at participants' consumption of red chili peppers in relation to their disease and mortality rates. They found that participants who consumed hot chili peppers were typically younger males who were likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and consume a diet consisting of meats and vegetables. However, they also had lower HDL cholesterol levels, a lower income and less education. Researchers analyzed data from a medial follow-up of approximately 19 years, checking to see how many participants died and what the cause of those deaths were.

How can something as simple as hot chili peppers offer such amazing health benefits? That's a question researchers were reluctant to answer. However, researchers theorize that it could be attribute to receptors for specific compounds within chili peppers. In any case, it's safe to say that chili peppers are a highly beneficial health food.

"Although the mechanism by which peppers could delay mortality is far from certain, Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channels, which are primary receptors for pungent agents such as capsaicin (the principal component in chili peppers), may in part be responsible for the observed relationship," said the study's authors.

Of course, there are other benefits associated with chili peppers as well. This spicy pepper is packed full of vitamin C. When most people think of vitamin C-rich foods, they automatically think of oranges and other citrus fruits. While vitamin C is present in citrus fruits, it's also found in chili peppers. More specifically, a 1/2-cup serving of red chili peppers contains a whopping 179% of your daily vitamin C needs.

This study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.