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Known for their hot, spicy flavor, chili peppers can elevate any mundane dish and turn it into something spice-tacular. Apart from enhancing flavor, these heart-healthy superfoods can also boost longevity and prevent deadly heart attacks.
According to Italian researchers, eating chili peppers regularly lowers your risk of death from a heart attack. The researchers arrived at this conclusion after studying the diets of nearly 23,000 people who live in the Italian region of Molise, home of the Mediterranean diet, which many consider to be the healthiest of all diets.
Spices like chili peppers are an essential part of the Mediterranean diet. Along with herbs that grow in the region, chili peppers are placed at the base of the Mediterranean diet pyramid because they are rich in nutrients and are a healthy substitute for salt.
For their study, the researchers scored each person’s eating pattern based on how well they adhered to the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes the consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, olive oil and fatty fish. The diet encourages eating only limited amounts of dairy products and red meat.
The researchers found that people who consumed chili peppers at least four times a week had a 40 percent lower risk of death from heart attack compared to those who rarely ate or ate no chili peppers at all. The regular chili eaters also had a 34 percent lower risk of dying from coronary heart disease and a more than 50 percent lower risk of dying from cerebrovascular diseases like stroke.
Here’s another piece of good news: You can enjoy these benefits even if you don’t follow the Mediterranean diet — just make sure you add chili peppers to your regular diet!
“An interesting fact is that protection from mortality risk was independent of the type of diet people followed,” said lead researcher Marialaura Bonaccio. “In other words, someone can follow the healthy Mediterranean diet, someone else can eat less healthily, but for all of them chili pepper has a protective effect.”
Chili peppers owe many of their health benefits to capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their hot, pungent flavor. Capsaicin is an antioxidant that has long been used in topical creams to relieve joint pain and muscle aches. According to Dr. DeLisa Fairweather, a cardiovascular disease expert from Mayo Clinic, this plant compound is incredibly beneficial for the heart.
Capsaicin protects against heart disease by reducing inflammation. Inflammation, according to Fairweather, drives plaque buildup in the walls of your blood vessels, which could restrict blood flow and cause a host of problems, such as stroke, heart attack and other cardiovascular events.
“There really could be important benefits that you could have from eating hot chili peppers, especially in their ability to reduce some of these immune cell responses that are driving atherosclerosis and heart attacks,” Fairweather said.
Studies also show that capsaicin can help reduce high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, both of which are risk factors for heart disease. Additionally, capsaicin can inhibit the formation of blood clots.
In a 2014 study, researchers from Hong Kong found that capsaicin lowers blood cholesterol and blocks the expression of a gene that make the arteries contract. The narrowing of the arteries can restrict blood flow to your heart and brain.
Thanks to their fiery flavor, chili peppers can turn any boring dish into something you’ll never forget. Whip up this heart-healthy chicken-stuffed pepper recipe for a delicious and nutritious meal.
Chili peppers are superfoods that not only add flavor to meals but are also packed with anti-inflammatory nutrients that can keep your heart healthy. Learn how to use chili peppers in your favorite dishes to boost your intake of heart-healthy nutrients like capsaicin!
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