Break Out The Hot Peppers And Instantly Improve Your Health
It’s been rumoured for years in bodybuilding circles that hot chili sauce helps with reducing stomach fat and to a degree, the hotter the chili the better. This recent study has took this a step further and shows that capsaicin, an active compound in chili peppers helps to increase the turnover of cells in your body. Eating spicy foods has been linked to a reduction in the risk of developing cancer and these studies are starting to indicate this.
“The bottom line is that any kind of vegetable material you consume will improve your health,” nutrition expert David Popovich from Massey University in New Zealand told TIME magazine. “But hot peppers are really beneficial for you, if you can take the spice.”
Popovich has been investigating the mechanism by which capsaicin appears to slow the growth of cancer cells in the lab. Back in 2006, researchers discovered that high doses of capsaicin could slow the growth of prostate cancer cells in mice by up to 80 percent, while leaving the healthy cells alone, and just a couple of months ago, a separate team demonstrated for the first time how this spicy compound binds to cancer cells and triggers changes in their internal structure.
It’s not yet known exactly how capsaicin is interacting with cancer cells to slow their growth, but scientists have observed it binding to the outer membrane and loging itself in, which appears to trigger chemical changes in the surface of the cell.
Popovich has observed the slowed growth of cancer cells in his own lab, and told Mandy Oaklander from TIME that the most popular hypothesis to explain what’s going on here is that the capsaicin is promoting a process known as apoptosis – programmed cell death that leads to a higher turnover of cells. It’s basically regulated cell suicide in the interest of cleaning up cells that are no longer needed.
“That’s one of the ways scientists think capsaicin and other active compounds in vegetables can prevent cancer development: by stimulating apoptotic cell death,” says Popovich.
While some researchers are investigating the potential of incorporating a concentrated form of capsaicin into a new anti-cancer drug, José de Jesús Ornelas-Paz from the Research Centre for Food and Development in Mexico told Oaklander the real benefits appear to come from the whole chili pepper – not just that one active ingredient.
So, if you love hot chilies, carry on eating them as it’s now being proved that they can improve your health. Problem is be careful what you eat this with as very high fat content, calorie laden Indian meals are not the way to go.