'Curry makes my heart pound'

As a resident of Birmingham, Britain's curry capital, I am no stranger to the merits of Indian cuisine.

But on hearing that a scientific study had 'proved' curry led to extreme levels of arousal, I was less than impressed. Determined to prove the research wrong, I hired a private nurse and headed off to my favourite curry house.

A blood pressure check revealed a level of 140 over 95, with a heart rate of 62 beats per minute.

By now I was extremely hungry, and when the manager ordered his chef to come up with a 'special banquet' I could feel my saliva levels going off the scale. Five steaming dishes, ranging from mild to very hot, were placed on the table alongside naan breads, poppadums and basmati rice.

But before I could tuck in, it was time for another blood pressure check. Remarkably, and contrary to all my expectations, my heart was racing.

The mere anticipation of this Indian feast had increased my diastolic blood pressure to 100 - a rise of nearly five per cent. Meanwhile, my heart rate had rocketed to 80 beats per minute - up by a massive 29 per cent.

But it was not over yet. After tucking into a mild curry, the heart rate rose once again to 88, a 42 per cent increase. This level remained consistent throughout the medium hot course, before climbing to 92.

All this appeared to be an exaggerated version of Professor Gray's findings. He predicted that the curry-eater's favourite dish would produce the most dramatic results and the spicy chicken nentara - accompanied by a reading more than 48 per cent above my 'resting' heart rate - was, indeed, the tastiest of all.

After sampling all the dishes, my diastolic blood pressure was up by another five per cent and my plans to disprove the arousal theory lay in ruins.