title: Spicy food consumption is associated with adiposity measures among half a million Chinese people: the China Kadoorie Biobank study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Few animal experiments and volunteer-based intervention studies have showed a controversial effect of spicy foods on weight management; however, information is scant on the association between spicy food intake and obesity. This study aims to examine the impact of spicy food on quantitative adiposity measures in the Chinese population; a population with a low prevalence of general obesity, but a high prevalence of central obesity.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 434,556 adults (255,094 females), aged 30-79 years, were included from the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) study. Information on spicy food intake was obtained using a questionnaire survey. Body mass index (BMI), percentage body fat (BF%), waist circumference (WC), and WC/height ratio (WHtR) were analyzed as continuous variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of daily spicy food eating was 30.4% in males and 30.0% in females, with dramatically geographic diversity (ranging from 99.4% in Hunan to 2.7% in Zhejiang). The covariates-adjusted BMI, BF%, WC, and WHtR significantly increased with increasing frequency, strength, and duration of spicy food eating regardless of gender (p < 0.001). Among regular spicy food consumers, strength of spicy food eating showed significant and positive association with all adiposity measures in both genders (except for BF% in males). Compared with non-consumers, daily spicy food eating was significantly associated with an increase of 0.44 and 0.51 of BMI (kg/m2), 0.79 and 1.01 of BF%, 1.4 and 1.0 of WC (cm), and 0.008 and 0.006 of WHtR in males and females, respectively. In stratified analyses of 18 consecutive BMI subgroups, a significantly increasing trend in the effect of daily spicy food eating on WC and WHtR with increasing BMI was noted in males; whereas a decreasing trend was seen in females.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data indicate that spicy food intake is a risk factor for obesity in Chinese adult population, especially for central obesity in males. Further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying this association.
authors.forename: Dianjianyi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shengxu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.forename: Canqing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Huiyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Yunlong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Junshi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zhengming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China. lmlee@vip.163.com.
authors.forename: Liming
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004032:Diet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D056128:Obesity, Abdominal / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D017365:Spices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055105:Waist Circumference