Friday Follies: Peppers Help Preggers to Pop

Hospital food has a reputation as bland, unappetizing, or just plain bad. Efforts are under way in lots of medical institutions to change that perception, but it’s still a fact that many people dread going to the hospital because of the food. You’d think we would be over the M*A*S*H Effect on medical dining, but we’re not.

One thing’s changing at hospitals, though; more zesty food! Which is leading to an interesting outcome…

A recent hospital study has proven what some have suspected for a long time: Eating spicy food can induce labor in a woman who’s near term in her pregnancy.

Given that hospitals and medical insurance providers everywhere are looking for ways to cut costs, this may be an important breakthrough. Yep, they can start feeding pepper stew to pregnant women to induce labor rather than resorting to expensive drugs and therapies. After all, a few habañero chiles have got to be cheaper than esoteric materials with names like Cytotec or Prepidil. Or maybe jalapeño milkshakes; I bet a couple of those would have the kid out of there in a jiffy.

I see this as a real win-win finding. We can dramatically improve the food in places with notoriously bad food, while reducing the cycle time (sorry, my manufacturing background again) for getting babies delivered. Has to be good money in that, right?

I just hope the delivery doctors are ready to work! And that they bring their catcher’s mitts; they’re gonna need them…

Enjoy the (Better Birthing) Heat!