5 ms·

New Study Finds Eating Spicy Food Doubles Your Chances of Dementia

9 points by theonething 7y ago

apotatopot 7y ago
What is the capsaicin content of 50 grams of "chili"? What is the scoville measurment of these chilis? This is totally absurd. Those who are more chili were more active and had a lower BMI? I'm considered overweight and eat crazy amounts of spicy things. Sounds like a bunch of hooey to me.
- blacksmith_tb 7y ago
  Yes, even the study says as much, for example: "In our study, there was a significant difference in chili intake among people with different education levels. Therefore, it is possible that the confounding effect of education may still contribute to the relationship between chili intake and cognitive function." So it's equally possible they discovered that poor people eat more spicy food than rich people in China... If there actually is a causal relationship, we would expect to see much higher rates of dementia in India or Mexico, which doesn't seem to be the case.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    > So it's equally possible they discovered that poor people eat more spicy food than rich people in China... It'd be surprising if that wasn't true, since spicy food is a very regional phenomenon. There are two provinces known for spicy food: Hunan and Sichuan. If an American study demonstrated that eating Cajun food spiked your odds of being poor, what would that mean?
m4r35n357 7y ago
Bollocks. Seriously.
xkcd-sucks 7y ago
Given the limited geographic distribution of study participants, the study might suggest pervasive environmental contamination of hot-pot ingredients instead of a capsaicin effect
chupa-chups 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis If you're downvoting, please just reply with a reasonable explanation why, since I like to learn where I am likely wrong, and you hopefully like to educate someone having a differing opinion. Thanks.
- ScottFree 7y ago
  This. It's not science if it hasn't been replicated. OT: does anybody know if there's a site that tracks which studies have been replicated and which ones haven't?
  - chupa-chups 7y ago
    So much this. If there was a site tracking those studies over time, I'd pay quite a bit of money a month just to be informed.
  - Jach 7y ago
    I've found it useful to just google a particular study + replicated/reproduced. But some time ago I also found https://replication.uni-goettingen.de/wiki/index.php/Portal:Replication_in_other_fields_of_science https://replication.uni-goettingen.de/wiki/index.php/Portal:... that links to a few resources (that wiki itself is for replication in economics).
    - chupa-chups 7y ago
      I can't find any. Can you help?
DoreenMichele 7y ago
Researchers out of Qatar University assessed the chili intake and rate of cognitive decline of nearly 5,000 Chinese adults aged 55 and older over a 15-year period. If you are poor and in China, those chilis may be getting dried over an open coal fire. This is known to come with myriad negative health impacts. At least 3,000 people in Guizhou Province in southwest China are suffering from severe arsenic poisoning. The primary source of the arsenic appears to be consumption of chili peppers dried over fires fueled with high-arsenic coal. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC34284/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC34284/
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
duelingjello 7y ago
Pseudoscience bullcrap. Pry my dozen jars of Trader Joe's sweet pickled jalapeños in the pantry from my cold, dead, demented hands. (I'm not even kidding.)

9 points by theonething 7y ago

What is the capsaicin content of 50 grams of "chili"? What is the scoville measurment of these chilis? This is totally absurd. Those who are more chili were more active and had a lower BMI? I'm considered overweight and eat crazy amounts of spicy things. Sounds like a bunch of hooey to me.

blacksmith_tb 7y ago
Yes, even the study says as much, for example: "In our study, there was a significant difference in chili intake among people with different education levels. Therefore, it is possible that the confounding effect of education may still contribute to the relationship between chili intake and cognitive function." So it's equally possible they discovered that poor people eat more spicy food than rich people in China... If there actually is a causal relationship, we would expect to see much higher rates of dementia in India or Mexico, which doesn't seem to be the case.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > So it's equally possible they discovered that poor people eat more spicy food than rich people in China... It'd be surprising if that wasn't true, since spicy food is a very regional phenomenon. There are two provinces known for spicy food: Hunan and Sichuan. If an American study demonstrated that eating Cajun food spiked your odds of being poor, what would that mean?

m4r35n357 7y ago

Bollocks. Seriously.

xkcd-sucks 7y ago

Given the limited geographic distribution of study participants, the study might suggest pervasive environmental contamination of hot-pot ingredients instead of a capsaicin effect

chupa-chups 7y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis If you're downvoting, please just reply with a reasonable explanation why, since I like to learn where I am likely wrong, and you hopefully like to educate someone having a differing opinion. Thanks.

ScottFree 7y ago
This. It's not science if it hasn't been replicated. OT: does anybody know if there's a site that tracks which studies have been replicated and which ones haven't?
- chupa-chups 7y ago
  So much this. If there was a site tracking those studies over time, I'd pay quite a bit of money a month just to be informed.
- Jach 7y ago
  I've found it useful to just google a particular study + replicated/reproduced. But some time ago I also found https://replication.uni-goettingen.de/wiki/index.php/Portal:Replication_in_other_fields_of_science https://replication.uni-goettingen.de/wiki/index.php/Portal:... that links to a few resources (that wiki itself is for replication in economics).
  - chupa-chups 7y ago
    I can't find any. Can you help?

DoreenMichele 7y ago

Researchers out of Qatar University assessed the chili intake and rate of cognitive decline of nearly 5,000 Chinese adults aged 55 and older over a 15-year period. If you are poor and in China, those chilis may be getting dried over an open coal fire. This is known to come with myriad negative health impacts. At least 3,000 people in Guizhou Province in southwest China are suffering from severe arsenic poisoning. The primary source of the arsenic appears to be consumption of chili peppers dried over fires fueled with high-arsenic coal. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC34284/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC34284/

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

duelingjello 7y ago

Pseudoscience bullcrap. Pry my dozen jars of Trader Joe's sweet pickled jalapeños in the pantry from my cold, dead, demented hands. (I'm not even kidding.)