A high-salt diet has long been linked to higher odds of developing high blood pressure and heart disease as well as an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and heart failure.
New Delhi: While the health benefits of spicy food are a debatable topic among
nutritionists and medical experts, a study from China has suggested that
people who eat spicy food may eat less salt and have lower blood pressure,
thereby reducing their risk of heart attacks and strokes.
The study, published in the journal Hypertension, said that people who didn't
eat spicy food ended up consuming an average of 13.4 grams of salt per day.
The average salt intake was just 10.3 grams a day for those who did eat spicy
food.
Systolic blood pressure – the “top” number showing how much pressure blood
exerts against artery walls when the heart beats, was 8 mmHg
(millimeters of mercury) lower for people with the greatest love of spicy foods
than for individuals with the lowest tolerance for spice, the study also found.
Diastolic blood pressure – the “bottom” number indicating how much pressure
the blood exerts on artery walls when the heart is at rest between beats –
was 5 mmHg lower for spice lovers.
“Our study shows that the enjoyment of spicy flavour is an important way to
reduce salt intake and blood pressure, no matter the type of food and the
amount of food,” said senior study author Dr. Zhiming Zhu of Third Military
Medical University in Chongqing, China. “We advise people to enjoy spicy food
in their daily life as long as they can tolerate,” Zhu said by email. “We do not
recommend people who can’t tolerate pungent of chili pepper consume spicy
food frequently.”
A high-salt diet has long been linked to higher odds of developing high blood
pressure and heart disease as well as an increased risk of heart attack, stroke
and heart failure. But determining the ideal amount of dietary salt is
controversial because some research has also found an elevated risk of heart
disease, high blood pressure and heart attacks in otherwise healthy people
who consume too little salt.
Some previous research suggests that trace amounts of capsaicin, the
chemical that gives chili peppers their pungent smell, may heighten salty
flavors in foods, essentially requiring lower amount of salt to achieve the flavor
people may want, Zhu said by email. For the current study, researchers wanted
to see if this heightened awareness of salty flavors in food might translate into
lower salt intake, Zhu said.
Researchers also used imaging techniques to look at two regions of the
participants’ brains — the insula and orbitofrontal cortex — known to be
involved in salty taste. They found that the areas stimulated by salt and spice
overlapped, and that spice further increased brain activity in areas activated by
salt. Authors said that this increased activity likely makes people more sensitive
to salt so that they can enjoy food with less of it.
The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how a
love of spicy foods might translate into eating less salt or having lower blood
pressure. Another drawback is that researchers relied on surveys to determine
how much salt participants consumed, and they didn’t independently verify this,
the authors note.
It’s also possible that results from Chinese people might not apply to other
racial or ethnic groups in other regions of the world. “It is impossible to tell from
this study which types of spices will be the most beneficial or how much spice
is required to see a beneficial effect on lowering salt intake or blood pressure,”
said Richard Wainford, author of an accompanying editorial and a
pharmacology researcher at Boston University School of Medicine.
“There are no key spices identified in this study,” Wainford said by email.
“A good way to think about it is adding a little spice may be beneficial!”
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