Month: December 2023

Adding this ingredient to your diet could halve the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke.

Adding this ingredient to your diet could halve the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke.

Eating chili peppers regularly could cut down the risk of dying from heart disease, stroke, and any cause of death, research finds.

Chili pepper is a popular ingredient commonly used in the traditional Mediterranean diet and many other cultures.

An Italian study found that consuming chili peppers four times a week or more can reduce the risk of dying from a stroke by 50 percent, heart attacks by 40 percent, and any cause of death by 23 percent.

The study examined 23,000 Italians and followed their health and eating habits for more than eight years.

Dr Marialaura Bonaccio, the study’s first author, said:

“An interesting fact is that protection from mortality risk was independent of the type of diet people followed.

In other words, someone can follow the healthy Mediterranean diet, someone else can eat less healthily, but for all of them, chili pepper has a protective effect.”

The protective action of chili peppers on health could be due to its high capsaicin and flavonoid content.

Several studies have shown a positive link between frequency of eating chili peppers and health benefits.

Capsicum species come in different varieties such as serrano, Italian chilli peppers, cayenne, and jalapeño.

They contain phytochemicals such as quercetin and luteolin, which are natural antioxidants with an anti-inflammatory function.

The chili pepper family also contains capsaicinoids and carotenoids like beta carotene.

Therefore, all these active compounds and possibly their collaboration together could have a positive effect on human health.

About the author

Mina Dean is a Nutritionist and Food Scientist. She holds a BSc in Human Nutrition and an MSc in Food Science.

The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (Bonaccio et al., 2019).

Hello, and welcome to PsyBlog. Thanks for dropping by.

This site is all about scientific research into how the mind works.

It’s mostly written by psychologist and author, Dr Jeremy Dean.

I try to dig up fascinating studies that tell us something about what it means to be human.

You can get free email updates with more articles like this from PsyBlog by clicking here.

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Infidelity often has a highly corrosive effect on relationships.

Infidelity often has a highly corrosive effect on relationships.

Narcissism is one of the strongest predictors that someone will cheat in their relationship, research finds.

Narcissists are likely to be vain, egocentric and over-confident — they like to show off their bodies, talk about themselves and put other people down.

Two other personality factors that predict people’s infidelity are unstable emotions and psychopathy.

People who are unstable are unreliable, careless, badly organised and find it hard to resist temptation.

Psychopaths, meanwhile, are irresponsible, spontaneous and manipulative.

The authors write:

“One of the strongest predictors is Narcissism.

Women high on Narcissism predict that they will flirt with, kiss, and date other men, as well as have one night stands, brief affairs, and serious affairs with other men.”

The results come from a study of 107 married couples who reported on their relationships and any infidelity.

Naturally, people who were dissatisfied with their relationship were more likely to have affairs.

Similarly, couples who had many complaints about their partners were also more likely to have an affair.

Complaints that predicted adultery included alcohol abuse, eyeing up other people, jealousy, condescension and being too possessive.

After narcissism, the authors explain that…

“…two equally strong predictors of mild and serious infidelity are low Conscientiousness and high Psychoticism.

These variables are correlated, and share the common component of impulsivity and inability to delay gratification.

And like Narcissism, Conscientiousness and Psychoticism are stronger predictors of women’s anticipated infidelities than men’s anticipated infidelities.

These findings suggest that a personality style marked by impulsivity, low dependability, and low reliability in general carries over…”

Infidelity often has a highly corrosive effect on relationships, the authors write:

“Infidelity may be the most destructive source of conflict inflicted on a marriage.

Despite its destructive impact, infidelities are estimated conservatively to occur in about half of all marriages.”

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Buss & Shackleford, 1997).

Hello, and welcome to PsyBlog. Thanks for dropping by.

This site is all about scientific research into how the mind works.

It’s mostly written by psychologist and author, Dr Jeremy Dean.

I try to dig up fascinating studies that tell us something about what it means to be human.

You can get free email updates with more articles like this from PsyBlog by clicking here.

Author: Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book “Making Habits, Breaking Habits” (Da Capo, 2013) and several ebooks. View all posts by Jeremy Dean

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