PUT some more pepper in that pot, it can help protect you against cancer and other illnesses, experts say.

For those who are unaccustomed to spicy food, it might cause your face to turn red, but the Clinical Dietician at the Baptist Health International Centre of Miami, Susan Nowrouzi, admits that capsaicin, the chemical that gives spicy food its kick, could be used to kill cancerous tumours with few or no side effects. Besides that, while delivering her presentation at the Breast Cancer Awareness Month Breakfast hosted by Baptist Health in collaboration with the Rotary Clubs of Trinidad and Tobago at the Hyatt Regency hotel last week, she said when combined with a diet rich in omega 3’s, natural vitamins, soy and sufficient exercise, ’it can help prevent the growth of cancer cells’.

In a 2007 study, scientists have found that the compound, responsible for the hot, burning taste found in chillies, could also hold the key to the next generation of anti-cancer drugs.

Research conducted by Dr Timothy Bates at the University of Nottingham found that capsaicin can kill cells by directly targeting their energy source, indicating that people could control or prevent the onset of cancer by eating a diet rich in capsaicin.

Bates, a member of the Medical Research Council (MRC) College of Experts and an internationally-renowned researcher of anti-cancer drug development was reported to have said that ’this is incredibly exciting and may explain why people living in countries like Mexico and India, who traditionally eat a diet which is very spicy, tend to have lower incidences of many cancers that are prevalent in the western world.’

Locally, Health Minister Jerry Narace has expressed concern at the growing number of cancer cases and insist that the ministry is doing all they can to help people detect and treat cancer related diseases as early as possible.

’Here in Trinidad and Tobago, the incidence of cancer continues to rise, reaching approximately 2,000 new cases annually. What is even more alarming is that 60 per cent of these cases are fatal,’ he said while addressing a graduation ceremony for 54 nurses at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mount Hope last Thursday.

Some of these fatal cases he explained were predominantly attributed to cancers of the breast, cervix, prostate, colon and rectum, bronchus and lung.

However, during her presentation, clinical dietician, Susan Nowrouzi said about 50 per cent of the Trinidad and Tobago population is either overweight or obese and that was something to watch for since obesity has been proven to be one of the leading causes of cancer.

’In the United States, it is two thirds, but Trinidad is fast catching up with this number ... and in order to overcome this, you need to eat your vegetables, your onions and your garlic. You want to go back to basics because it will help prevent the growth of cancer cells,’ she said.