Uproar in China after study suggests eating chilli is linked to dementia

HONG KONG — Eating chilli may be linked to a decline in cognitive function and an added risk of dementia, a study has found, causing a stir on Chinese social media.

The study, published in the journal Nutrients in May, was conducted by five researchers from universities in Qatar, Australia and the United States. Based on data collected from 4,582 Chinese people aged over 55 during a 15-year period, it concluded that chilli intake was inversely related to cognitive ability.

Those who ate more than 50 grams of chilli a day had more than double the risk of poor memory, and a 56 per cent higher risk of suffering memory loss, the study found.

The cognitive decline was greater among people of average weight than among those who were overweight, it found.

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However, the way in which chilli intake might cause cognitive decline remained unknown, the researchers noted.

The researchers’ previous study suggested that eating chilli had beneficial effects by being inversely associated with mortality, obesity and hypertension.

“Chilli consumption was found to be beneficial for body weight and blood pressure in our previous studies,” Dr Zumin Shi, one of the five researchers, wrote. “However, in this study, we found adverse effects on cognition among older adults.”

The study generated huge interest among chilli lovers on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, when it was posted on Wednesday by Chinese website Pear Video. The topic received more than 300 million views, with some chilli lovers standing firm and others expressing disbelief.

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“Chilli undermines my memory, but I can’t live without it,” one user said.

“Sichuan and Hunan people would disagree [with the findings],” another commented.

In certain regions, including the provinces of Hunan in central China and Sichuan in the southwest, almost one in three adults consume spicy food such as chilli pepper on a daily basis, according to a study published in 2015 in medical journal The BMJ.

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Dr Jiang Zhuoqin, a nutrition professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, said there was no need for Chinese people to eat less spice based solely on the latest study.

Dietary guidelines in China — in common with some other countries, including the US — suggest healthy limits to salt and sugar intake, but no such limit for chilli, Dr Jiang said, adding that chilli flavouring is not the dominant factor determining mental health.

Dr Jiang questioned the robustness of the study on the basis that it did not consider varying degrees of chilli consumption in different regions.

“People in the regions that consume chilli heavily, including Sichuan and Hunan, do not appear to be less smart than those in other areas,” he said. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST