IS SPICY CHICKEN GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH?

Do you like slathering your chicken in Sriracha sauce or topping everything you eat with Tabasco? If the answer is a resounding “yes”, then smile! Because a new research study published in the British Medical Journal says you can probably live longer than those who aren’t putting that much “spice” in their life. 

The research was conducted on half-a-million people in China, and, in the end, the researchers found that people who ate spicy chicken or its several variants like spicy chicken nuggets, spicy chicken wings, or spicy fried chicken even twice a week reduced their risk of death by up to 10 percent! 

When you ramp up the spicy intake to 6 times a week that number increases to 14 percent!! 

Sounds terrific, right? Let’s now check these facts for ourselves. So, here’s the good and bad news:

The Good

1. Assists in weight control - According to nutrition experts, the biggest benefit of eating spicy food (especially jalapenos, cayenne, and habaneros) comes from the chemical capsaicin. Capsaicin speeds up your metabolism by increasing your core body temperature and heart rate. Experts say that the best time to eat spicy food is during a heavier meal like lunch or dinner. It stimulates the digestive tract.
2. Spicy food makes you look younger - Studies have found that eating spicy food like spicy chicken curry, spicy chicken tenders or even that mouthwatering spicy chicken burger could help you live longer. Okay, great. But what about looking younger? Good news on this count too! Research says that spicy food can slow down the aging process by increasing blood flow significantly to the face and body. This makes your skin look more youthful. Any food that helps with the inside of your body automatically will make you look better on the outside.
3. Healing - Spicy foods have been proven to be an excellent way to relieve sinus congestion and open your breathing airway wider.Spicy food like spicy wings, hot and spicy chicken, and spicy grilled chicken not only help people with sinus conditions potentially decrease their symptoms, but it also helps increase the blood flow and overall circulation that improves healing properties.Anyway, it has been known for centuries that chili peppers have excellent medicinal properties. As they are full of vitamins like A and C, they can help boost your immune system and even fight common ailments like the common cold, for example.
4. Heart Helper - Spicy chicken ramen or spicy chicken stir fry (or any spicy food for that matter) acts as an antioxidant and blood thinner, which can help prevent heart disease by improving cardiac blood vessel strength. Talk about being heart-healthy! 
5. Anti-inflammatory - Spicy chicken can help with pain and healing by increasing blood flow to an affected area. This is because Capsaicin, the active ingredient in scotch bonnet peppers, is known to fight inflammation. This can also be very beneficial for people with autoimmune diseases, Parkinson’s, and even asthma sufferers. 
6. Anti-bacterial - Did you know spicy food can actually kill stomach bacteria?! This is a huge benefit as the peppers help prevent further infections throughout the body.
7. Temperature Regulation - One of the best things about spicy food is that it can heat up your body when it’s cold out and, surprisingly, can cool your body off when you are hot. This is because eating spicy food makes you sweat and sweating helps your body regulate its temperature itself. So, although it may seem strange, add more heat and spice to your food when the heat is on. 

The Bad

1. Irritant - Even though capsaicin has its benefits, it also has some downsides. Capsaicin can turn out to be a very potent irritant. It can cause damage to the inner lining of the stomach, which in turn can cause stomach ulcers, gastritis, and even intestinal disease such as colitis.
2. A Bad Burn - You may crave the burning sensation that a bowl of hot chicken flavor ramen or hot fried chicken has on your tongue, but the flipside to that is that spicy food can also cause heartburn or reflux disease because its acidic and irritant properties can cause unwanted effects once it hits your insides.
3. Tasteless - While you may think spicy food enhances the taste of your chicken, beef, or mutton, the fact is that spicy foods can also damage your taste buds thereby degrading your sense of taste. This might probably be the reason why over time you feel like dialing up the spice/heat even more on your favorite foods — or even explain the reason why you can happily eat the Buffalo wings with the “too hot to handle” sauce! 
4. Bad Bowel Movements - Spicy food can worsen already existing hemorrhoids by causing further damage and irritation. It can also make symptoms of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) worse, and even potentially result in diarrhea. Not fun at all!