Can chilli peppers offer health benefits?
Over the years there have been many different views on the effects that regular chilli consumption can have on the the human body. Here we try to pick through the research to see if indeed the humble chilli is good for us. |
|
| |
Effects on blood sugar
Researchers at the University of Tasmania completed a study (published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, July 2006) that suggests the regular consumption of chillies can help your body control insulin levels after eating which could benefit the overweight or diabetic. To be more precise the chilli reduces the amount of insulin the body needs to lower blood sugar levels after a meal by up to about 60%.
During the study candidates that followed a diet high in chilli content had lower blood glucose levels than those on a diet devoid of chilli. The author of the study Kiran Ahuja said "Chilli meals possibly result in lower C-peptide and insulin secretion and higher hepatic clearance of insulin, and the effect is larger if chilli is eaten regularly".
Although scientists are still trying to understand exactly why this effect occurs the results of the study are surely good news for the overweight and diabetes sufferers. |
|
 | Inflammation
Capsaicin, the substance that give chilies their heat is well known to contain a neuropeptide associated with the inflammatory process. Chilli related alterations in plasma proteins have been reported in patients with autoinflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid and arthritis. |
|
Congestion
Now you don't have to be a scientist to work this one out. If you eat a dish loaded with hot chillies the heat from the capsaicin causes secretions, or in other words sweating and a runny nose, that help clear the nasal passage.
Prostate Cancer
A study published by Cancer Research in March 2006 concluded that capsaicin helped stop the spread of prostate cancer. The capsaicin triggered suicide in both primary types of prostate cancer cell lines. "It also dramatically slowed the development of prostate tumors formed by those human cell lines grown in mouse models" said Soren Lehmann, M.D. Ph.D, visiting scientist at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre and the UCLA School of Medicine. The dosage on mice that produced these effects equated roughly to about 5 habanero peppers a week for an average man. |
|
 | Stomach Cancer
A Berkley neurobiology study concluded that capsaicin / chilli consumption is "protective against stomach cancer". They pointed to the fact that the gastric cancer rates in Mexico, where chilli pepper conumption is particularly high, are proportionally lower than most other countries. They also noted the correlation between increasing chilli consumption in the USA and falling rates of gastric cancer. |
|
Pain relief
Capsaicin (the substance that give chillies their heat) has been found to give pain relief without the numbing effect usually associated with anaesthetics. Harvard researchers said recently that capsaicin can be used to target pain receptors without affecting nerve cells. In real terms this means that a visit to the dentists for some fillings wouldn't have to result in you being unable to talk properly for the rest of the day. Another application might be for the application of pain relief during child birth. Another potentially huge implication might be the use of capsaicin to treat patients in pathological pain without affecting mental function, alertness or other aspects of life that are often disrupted by traditional pain killers.
|
|
