本周发表在《英国医学杂志》上的一项新的研究表明，将辛辣食物作为日常饮食的一部分可降低死亡风险。这是一项观察性研究，因此因果关系之间还没有明确的结论，但作者呼吁更多的研究有关“更新的膳食推荐和功能性食品的发展。”

　　先前的研究表明，调料及其生物活性成分如辣椒素的有益影响包括：抗肥胖、抗氧化、抗炎和抗癌特性。

　　所以由中国医学科学院研究人员领导的一个国际团队检测了食用辛辣食物作为日常饮食的一部分和引起死亡总风险原因之间的关系。

　　他们进行了一项总共有487375名30 - 79岁之间的参与者参加的前瞻性研究。入选的参与者在2004 - 2008年之间被研究随访他们的发病率和死亡率。

　　所有参与者完成了一项关于健康的问卷调查，包括体质检查，食用辛辣食物，红肉、蔬菜和酒精。

　　有癌症史、心脏病史和中风史的参与者不能参加研究，一些如年龄、婚姻状况、教育水平、身体活动等因素也被考虑在内。

　　平均7.2年的随访时间中，有20224人死亡。

　　与吃辛辣食物不到一周一次的参与者相比，那些食用辛辣食物每周1到2天的人死亡风险降低了10%(死亡危害比为0.90)，那些吃辛辣食物一周3到5天或6到7天的人死亡风险降低了14%(死亡危险比0.86)。*

　　换句话说，比那些食用辛辣食物不到一周一次的人，几乎每天吃辛辣食物的参与者死亡风险降低了14%。（不管是男性或女性，并且对不饮酒的参与者相关性非常强）

　　经常食用辛辣食物的人死于癌症，缺血性心脏病和呼吸系统疾病的风险也较低，在这方面女性比男性更明显。

　　每周吃辛辣食物的人最常用的调料是新鲜辣椒和干辣椒粉，那些吃新鲜辣椒的人死于癌症，缺血性心脏病和188bet在线平台网址 的风险会降低。

　　作者解释说新鲜的辣椒富含辣椒素，维生素C，和其他营养素，一些生物活性成分与这种结果密切相关。

　　人们应该吃辣的食物来改善健康吗？来自剑桥大学的Nita Forouhi说此话还为时过早，并呼吁更多的研究来测试是否这些关联是摄入辛辣食物的直接结果，或者这是否是其它饮食或生活方式因素的一个标志。

　　doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h3942

　　PMC:

　　PMID:

　　Consumption of spicy foods and total and cause specific mortality: population based cohort study

　　Jun Lv, associate professor1, Lu Qi, associate professor23, Canqing Yu, assistant professor1, Ling Yang, senior epidemiologist4, Yu Guo, director, CKB national coordinating center5, Yiping Chen, senior research fellow4, Zheng Bian, senior coordinator, CKB national coordinating center5, Dianjianyi Sun, PhD candidate1, Jianwei Du, director6, Pengfei Ge, vice director7, Zhenzhu Tang, director8, Wei Hou, chief9, Yanjie Li, investigator10, Junshi Chen, professor11, Zhengming Chen, professor4, Liming Li

　　Abstract Results During 3 500 004 person years of follow-up between 2004 and 2013 (median 7.2 years), a total of 11 820 men and 8404 women died. Absolute mortality rates according to spicy food consumption categories were 6.1, 4.4, 4.3, and 5.8 deaths per 1000 person years for participants who ate spicy foods less than once a week, 1 or 2, 3 to 5, and 6 or 7 days a week, respectively. Spicy food consumption showed highly consistent inverse associations with total mortality among both men and women after adjustment for other known or potential risk factors. In the whole cohort, compared with those who ate spicy foods less than once a week, the adjusted hazard ratios for death were 0.90 (95% confidence interval 0.84 to 0.96), 0.86 (0.80 to 0.92), and 0.86 (0.82 to 0.90) for those who ate spicy food 1 or 2, 3 to 5, and 6 or 7 days a week, respectively. Compared with those who ate spicy foods less than once a week, those who consumed spicy foods 6 or 7 days a week showed a 14% relative risk reduction in total mortality. The inverse association between spicy food consumption and total mortality was stronger in those who did not consume alcohol than those who did (P=0.033 for interaction). Inverse associations were also observed for deaths due to cancer, ischemic heart diseases, and respiratory diseases. Conclusion In this large prospective study, the habitual consumption of spicy foods was inversely associated with total and certain cause specific mortality, independent of other risk factors of death.