Want To Live a Little Longer? Eating Spicy Food Could Be the Answer!

If you like spicy foods and you know it, clap your hands!

If you like spicy foods and you know it, clap your hands!

If you like spicy foods and you know it then you might just want to know that

Eating spicy foods can help you stay alive! 

OK, so maybe the song was a bad choice... but it was worth a shot, right? 

Over the years, spicy foods are one of the things I've come to love more and more. I find myself sprinkling on a little cayenne here and there, just to give my meals a little extra kick.

If you also love spicy food, then here's a(nother) reason to keep on loving them, other than the flavor, of course: spicy foods might help keep you alive longer--or at least it seems that way, according to a study published by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. 

The study looked at 487, 375 participants, whose medical data was on file in the China Kadoorie Biobank. The participants were between 30 and 79 years old between 2004 and 2008, when the data was collected. By the time of a median check up of those people 7.2 years later, there had been 20,224 deaths.

The researchers found that the people whose diets contained more spicy foods had a lower chance of death. Specifically, people who ate spicy food 1 or 2 days a week had a 10% lower chance, while people who consumed spicy food 6 or 7 days a week had a 14% lower chance of death. 

The consumption of chilies was especially helpful, as they are not only rich in capsaicin, which makes them spicy, as well as vitamin C and other valuable nutrients. The effect was similar in both men and women, although the chance of death was lower in those that did not consume alcohol.

The study also found that regular consumption of spicy foods was linked to a reduced rick of cancer as well as heart and respiratory diseases, and diabetes. This association was greater in women than in men.

The authors are urging more research in this area. So far, they only have a link between spicy foods and reduced risk of death, but do not understand any cause or effect. It could be that chilies and other spicy foods have a direct impact on human health, or they could simply be indicative of other, generally healthier dietary or lifestyle habits. It doesn’t seem like spicy foods are making people live shorter lives though, which is good news for people who prefer their meals with a little extra kick.

So, if you needed an excuse to add a little extra sriracha to your ramen or chili pepper sauce to your eggs, this could be good news for you :) But we'll all have to stay tuned for the finer details once additional research is conducted.

7 Foods That Boost Your Metabolism

Water stimulates the metabolism.

Image: Shutterstock

One of the best ways to ensure that your body keeps on burning excess calories instead of storing them as fat is to keep your metabolism going. Many of us have jobs where we sit all day (guilty), and that’s B-A-D for your body. There are lots of ways to keep your body active during a typical workday, but today I want to talk about the foods (and drinks) you can consume to help.

 Water—no joke, when you get dehydrated your body’s metabolism slows down. People who drink plenty of fluids every day tend to burn more calories than those who don’t.

Salmon—Foods high in Omega-3 fatty acids help our bodies build muscle. More muscle means more calories burned. Omega-3 is also thought to help reduce cortisol levels, which in turn would reduce how many calories our bodies convert to fat (this has not yet been proven).

Coffee—As long as you don’t overdo it, drinking coffee can be a great metabolic aid. Just one cup of coffee contains enough caffeine to speed up our metabolism by up to 15% and keep fat-storing processes at bay.

Hotter is better! Eat chili peppers to burn more calories.

Image: Shutterstock

Avocado—The essential oils, fats, and antioxidants present in avocados help keep our blood vessels healthy and inflammation down, meaning that our metabolism can function well. Avocados also have lots of fiber, which speeds up our metabolism as well.

Beans—Because our bodies have to work extra hard to process the fiber and resistant starch in beans, we burn more calories doing so. Studies suggest eating foods with high levels of resistant starch (beans, whole grains) can boost metabolism up to 24% throughout the day.

Chilies—Spicy foods that contain chilies also contain capsaicin, which boosts calorie burn. The hotter the better!

Green Tea—The combination of caffeine and antioxidants in green teas naturally stimulate our bodies and speed up our metabolism and increase fat burn. Various studies have suggested that drinking green tea on a regular basis can help people stay slim.

Green tea's antioxidants and caffeine can help us stay slim.

Image: Shutterstock

Other foods that you can eat to give your body a natural boost include almonds, apples, pears, broccoli, cinnamon, curry, grapefruit, lean meat, oatmeal, spinach, unsweetened soymilk, and yogurt. I don’t know about you all, but those are some of my favorite things to eat anyway!

For more information on these foods and others, check out “Surprising Foods That Fight Fat” on Health.com and “16 Foods that Naturally Boost Your Metabolism” on Organic Authority. I used both as sources.