Spice Up Fatty Foods To Lower Risk of Heart Disease

Yet another reason why you should really get better acquainted with your spice rack: Eating a diet rich in spices can help your body fight the negative effects of fatty food and enhance antioxidant defenses. That’s according to a new study conducted by biobehavioral researchers at Penn State and published in the Journal of Nutrition.

Eating a high-fat meal can cause your body’s triglyceride levels to spike which, if it happens frequently enough or if triglyceride levels get too high, can raise risk of heart disease as well. But adding certain spices to a high-fat meal reduced this triglyceride spiking by about 30% (compared to a similar meal with no spices added).

The study was conducted by testing patients after two meals: An unspiced control meal (chicken curry, Italian herb bread and a cinnamon biscuit) and the same meal with two tablespoons of spices added. After eating the spicy meal, patients not only showed lower blood triglyceride levels, but also a 13% rise in blood antioxidants and a 20% lower insulin response.

The spiced meal used a blend of rosemary, oregano, cinnamon, tumeric, back pepper, cloves, garlic powder and paprika—all of which were chosen because of previously demonstrated antioxidant properties (two tablespoons of any or a blend of these is equivalent to drinking a glass of red wine or eating 1.4 ounces of dark chocolate, said lead researcher Sheila West). All of the test subjects were overweight (but otherwise healthy) men between the ages of 3o and 65, so whether the results would be the same in women or in non-overweight patients (or whether less spice could be used to trigger these results) is unclear.