I don't think there's any truth to this. Because here in Andhra (India) people only eat spicy food and I see most people don't live longer than 70-80yrs. To quantify the spiciness: Most Indians from other states just run away from Andhra cuisine
With 65 being the average life expectancy in India (vs. 76 in the USA), maybe 80 isn't all that bad? Drop those same Andrha folks in a cleaner, less stressful spot on the globe and maybe they'd live 90-100s?
I don't have any stats to support my 70-80yrs lifetime claim. It's just my observation. And, I didn't think about how it compares with our national average. Looks like a bit better
I have andhra blood. My outer family eats medium spicy stuff. we eat lot of vegetables(we're vegetarians). Average life span about 75 years. There are parts of Andhra Pradesh where they eat too much spicy food. The life span in such areas is less than 65 years. I'm assuming that the article is not referring to this spice level. They're probably suggesting to the average Indian spice levels (which is higher compared to the rest of the world -- especially European and American).
