What is it about chilli that polarises opinion?

Supermarket chillies

A quick survey of friends and colleagues showed that more men than women like chilli.

Some men were quite adventurous and consumed meat dishes containing large amounts of chilli. We wondered whether there would be any taste in the dish apart from chilli, so why such a volume?

We guessed it might be the endorphins that are stimulated, so chilli gives a kick, or perhaps it’s something else …

Another question is what positive benefits are there to be gained?

Searching Google with chilli+stomach we found:

• Chili stomach ache
• Chili stomach cancer
• Chili stomach ulcer
• Ghost chili stomach pain
• Chilli and stomach ulcerts
• Stomach pain from chilli
• Stomach pain after chilli
• Chilli burning stomach
• Chilli and stomach cancer

We didn’t go any further.

We then entered chilli+stomach+healthy and found many websites with advice for all kinds of ills, including cancer, from all kinds of self-appointed experts.

So, what should the discerning enquirer do?

Our advice is to follow the old adage of a little of everything does you good and, if you like chilli make sure you which find out which are the most reliable websites to refer to.

Websites providing reliable health information we recommend are:

• www.nhs.uk
• www.mayoclinic.org – very interesting
• www.bma.org.uk
• General advice on using the web … www.gosh.nhs.uk/EasySiteWeb

www.justanswer.com/health is a website where you can pay to talk to a doctor direct

Val Reynolds Brown, Editor