喜歡吃辣的人最長壽？

謝邀！

一項針對近50萬中國人展開的馬拉松式研究的結(jié)果顯示，一周吃辣三次以上的人，死亡風險降低了14%。那么這種相關(guān)性真的能夠說明吃辣就能長壽嗎？

雖然大量的研究證明適度吃辣確實能降低死亡風險，相關(guān)性也很清楚，但因果關(guān)系尚無法得到證明。營養(yǎng)學者認為，適度吃辣沒有壞處，但是什么都得適可而止，要不然物極必反。

那么我們來一起看看國外的一些報道是怎么報道的：

TIME 健康欄目HEALTH

標題是這么說的：The Intriguing Link Between Spicy Food and a Longer Life（辛辣食物和長壽有密切的關(guān)系）

People who love chili peppers might be eating their way to a longer life, according to a new study published in The BMJ.

“We know something about the beneficial effects of spicy foods basically from animal studies and very small-sized human studies,” says study author Lu Qi, associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. Some of those preliminary studies have found that spicy food and their active components—like capsaicin, the compound found in chili peppers—might lower inflammation, improve metabolic status and have a positive effect on gut bacteria and weight, he says.

But human evidence remains scant. So Qi and a team of researchers looked at questionnaire data from about half a million adults all across China who participated in the China Kadoorie Biobank study between 2004-2008. Each person in the study reported their health status, alcohol consumption, spicy food consumption, main source of chili intake (fresh or dried, in a sauce or in an oil) as well as meat and vegetable consumption.

The researchers followed up with them about seven years later. Compared to people who ate spicy foods less than once a week, people who ate them just once or twice a week had a 10% reduced risk of death. Bumping up the spice consumption didn’t make much of a difference; those who ate spicy food 3-7 days a week were at 14% reduced risk of death compared to the most spice-averse group.

Eating chili-rich spicy foods was also linked to a lower risk of death from certain diseases, including cancer, ischemic heart diseases and respiratory diseases, they found. Further analysis revealed that fresh chili had a stronger protective effect against death from those diseases.

More research is needed to make any causal case for the protective effects of chili—this does not prove that the spicy foods were the reason for the health outcomes—but Qi finds this observational research valuable. "It appears that increasing your intake moderately, just to 1-2 or 3-5 times a week, shows very similar protective effect," he says. "Just increase moderately. That’s maybe enough."

全文都在講述辛辣食物跟長壽的相關(guān)性，引用了哈佛大學公共衛(wèi)生學院副教授Lu Qi以及做了相應的研究實驗，不過還是驗證了中國那句老化：物極必反，適可而止！

SCIENCE TICKER 健康欄目HEALTH

標題：Spicy food associated with longevity

Spicy food in the diet seems to contribute to longevity, a study of thousands of people in a Chinese registry finds.

Men who ate spicy food at least once a week were 10 percent less likely to die during the seven-year study period than were those with a more bland diet. Women had a mortality decrease of 12 to 22 percent during the study period with regular spicy food consumption, and eating it three or more times a week was associated with the biggest decrease.

These observational data don’t establish that spicy foods reduces mortality. But the findings suggest that men who ate spicy food three or more times a week had fewer fatal respiratory diseases. For women, the strongest associations were seen in respiratory and cardiac diseases and infections.

The scientists speculate that capsaicin, the active ingredient in chili peppers, might underlie the benefits, they write in the August 4 BMJ.

還是說明了相關(guān)性，但是具體是否影響很大，也沒更多的說明！