Turn up the heat some more as the days get warmer with these herbs and spices that will definitely spice up your palate, as well as your physique. Aside from the extra flavor these natural ingredients can boost your diet with, these also pack health benefits, as herbs and spices are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and unique medicinal benefits. With these health benefits, it’s no surprise that herbs and spices are also key to maintaining a healthy body weight by promoting weight loss. If you’re looking to stay in top shape, here are the spices your next meals should have generous amounts of:
Black Pepper
Black pepper is packed with piperine that’s responsible for its flavor, and more importantly blocking the formation of new fat cells in the body. Combined with capsaicin and other thermogenic ingredients, black pepper can burn as much calories as you would in a 20-minute walk. When mixed with other healthy food, it increases their bioavailability, helping unlock their full health benefits.
Cumin
Cumin is one spice that comes in handy for digestion and producing energy, and it’s been shown to help improve glycemic control in people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. This spice has long been regarded for its long history of medicinal use, even going as far as being found to enhance memory and relieve stress.
Ginseng
Ginseng is known to boost your energy and speed up metabolism. In particular, the variant panax ginseng packs many weight loss benefits. In a study with diabetic and obese mice, those given panax ginseng extracts enjoyed improved sensitivity to insulin, all the while losing a good amount of their excess weight in just 12 days.
Cinnamon
Apart from boosting metabolism, cinnamon greatly helps in regulating blood sugar, making it a good diet staple for those with diabetes or pre-diabetes. For those with type 2 diabetes, adding seasoning food with cinnamon has been shown to reduce blood sugar levels, LDL (bad cholesterol), triglycerides, and overall cholesterol levels. Cinnamon also helps increase glucose metabolism by up to 20 times, allowing your body to effectively regulate blood sugar.
Cayenne Pepper
Peppers are rich in capsaicin, the compound that gives them their delicious, refreshing heat. There’s evidence suggesting that capsaicin can help fight obesity with a decreased calorie intake, shrinking of fat tissues, and lowered blood fat levels. Capsaicin can also help fight the buildup of fat by triggering healthy protein changes in the body.
With capsaicin’s heat potential, it can temporarily boost thermogenesis in the body, allowing it to burn more fat thanks to the heat, easily speeding up your metabolism and promoting healthy fat storage. Evidence from research shows that thermogenic ingredients like spices boost metabolism by up to 5%, while increasing the rate at which the body burns fat by 16% and in the process fight decreases in metabolic rate that happens during weight loss.
Turmeric
For all the curry lovers out there, turmeric is the yellow-orange spice at the core of your favorite dishes – and chances are, you’re already enjoying its benefits. Turmeric is rich in curcumin, which reduces the formation of fat tissues by suppressing the blood vessels required in forming it. This lowers your body fat and likelihood of weight gain even as you enjoy sumptuous curry dishes. Curcumin has also been known to help treat and prevent chronic diseases borne out of obesity, as its interactions with key signal transduction pathways in the body improves insulin resistance, and relieves hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, as well as other inflammatory symptoms that come with obesity and metabolic problems.
Dandelions
Dandelions may be the the bane of existence of anyone with horrible allergies, but in reality, each of its parts is edible and a nutritional powerhouse. These help slow digestion, making you feel full for longer, quickly curbing food cravings and hunger pangs that cause people to pack on the pounds. Dandelions have rich antioxidant properties and bitter crystalline compounds called Taraxacin and Taracerin that with inulin and levulin, provide many therapeutic effects. Along with dietary fibers, beta carotene, vitamin k1 and other minerals, dandelions can help normalize cholesterol and blood sugar, and in the process, cleanse the liver.
Ginger
Ginger’s anti-inflammatory properties can soothe and relax your intestinal tract, and with regular consumption can help boost your metabolism. Thanks to its appetite-suppressing effect when consumed, ginger also plays a vital role in healthy weight management.
Cardamom
This aromatic spice with a spicy-sweet flavor will be an absolute delight in any meal. Rich in thermogenic properties, this spice helps boost your metabolism and your body’s ability to burn fat. Cardamom is widely used in Ayurveda, an ancient form of holistic medicine and natural healing popular in India.
Mustard
Mustard seeds can boost your metabolic rate by 25%, allowing you to burn more calories efficiently. Even just a ⅗ teaspoon of seeds can help you burn up to 45 additional calories in just an hour.