Spice Up Your Food Life!

Eating healthy foods such as whole grains, lean meats, fruits, and vegetables are all very important in achieving a healthy lifestyle. Consuming healthy foods is essential but you're really missing out on some great health benefits if you don't utilize the multiple spices that are out in the world. Now spices don't have to be "hot" or "spicy" but can actually be savory or sweet. When you add spices to your meals it brings out interesting and foreign flavors to the food and spices can even alter the taste of the food and put it in another level of tastiness.

The first spice that you should definitely incorporate in your daily diet is adding cinnamon to your meals. The health benefits of adding cinnamon to your food includes lowering your blood sugar, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol with people who have type 2 diabetes. You should have between 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon on cinnamon a few times a day (Roufos). You can add cinnamon to several foods and even drinks. The easiest way to add cinnamon is mixing it into your oatmeal in the morning, or in your non-fat latte or even in your plain coffee. Cinnamon can easily be added to baked goods such as muffins, cookies, and you can even add into pancake mix.

Another spice that is not as commonly used or as popular as cinnamon is turmeric. This spice is mostly used in Indian cuisine but you can also add it to brown or wild rice or even quinoa. At breakfast time you can sprinkle turmeric over your eggs or egg whites. It will change the color of your eggs to a yellowish tint, which makes things different and more interesting to the eyes and the taste buds. You can also add turmeric to salads and bring out the textures and flavors of the ingredients. When you go to the store to buy this spice make sure that it isn't mixed with curry powder and that it's just pure turmeric. When it's mixed with curry powder there is really not much turmeric present at all. Turmeric contains curcumin, which may prevent the growth of cancer cells. You should try to have about 500 to 800 milligrams a day (Roufos).

Rosemary is another important spice, but it can also be very potent and have a strong flavor. Rosemary is great when preparing a rub for a chicken or even in tomato sauce. Rosemary stops gene mutations that may lead to cancer and it can also help prevent damage to the blood vessels that can raise your risk of a heart attack (Roufos). Oregano is another spice that is widely used mainly in Italian cuisine such as pizza and tomato sauces. What a lot of people don't know is that oregano has the highest antioxidant activity of 27 fresh culinary herbs according to a new study done by the USDA (Roufos). You can buy fresh or dried oregano, both are great and flavorful and nice on top of a healthy slice of pizza.

My favorite spice is packed with nutritional benefits and tons of flavors and it's...garlic! Yes garlic is packed with magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, tryptophan, selenium, calcium, and vitamin B1 or thiamin (WHFoods: Garlic). Garlic is great because it can be used whole or crushed. When you're cooking a meal and incorporating crushed garlic to the recipe make sure that you don't add the garlic right away because if you add it too soon you'll lose all the flavor of the garlic and more importantly you'll lose a lot of the health benefits it possesses. Garlic has been shown to lower your LDL cholesterol, prevent the formation of cancer cells, and reduce the risk of heart attack and heart disease (WHFoods: Garlic). You should aim at having about a clove a day and that can easily be achieved because garlic can be used in so many different recipes and it tastes great by itself.

Ginger is another spice that has multiple health benefits. Ginger, much like rosemary, has a strong and requires an acquired taste to fully enjoy. You can buy crystallized ginger, which is simply pieces of ginger with some sugar dusted on it, and skip the ginger ale. Ginger ale may be made with real ginger but it also contains a ton of sugar and calories so go with the crystallized ginger instead. You can also use ginger powder and add it into your recipes. Ginger can also decrease motion sickness and nausea and it can relieve the pain and swelling of arthritis. Ginger also reduces the risk of blood clotting.

Another one of my all time favorite spices is paprika. I enjoy my food really spicy so paprika, red pepper flakes, and hot peppers are some of favorite cronies in my food life. I usually sprinkle some crushed red pepper flakes over my food instead of using black pepper. I find the red pepper flakes have more of a punch flavor wise and spice wise. These spicy spices contain capsaicin which have anti-inflammatory and antioxidants that lower the risk of cancer. There is no recommended dose of these hot spices so if you like it hot spice it up!

Sources: (Roufos, Anna, Fitness Magazine, May 2006)
(WHFoods: Garlic, www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=60)