There are certain spices that just naturally come to mind as we approach the holiday season. Cinnamon, for instance. Cloves. Ginger. And, of course, hot peppers.
(Hot peppers? Well, when I was growing up, Christmas dinner sometimes featured my mother’s famous enchilada casserole, which could be made mild, medium–or hot.)
And unlike many of the things we may eat this holiday season, these and other spices may actually be beneficial to our health.
Just about every spice in the cupboard has been attributed with some kind of medical miracle power over the centuries. Some of those properties are undeniable–cloves, for instance, contain a substance called eugenol which is an effective local anesthetic, and thus oil of cloves was used in dentistry long before more effective anesthetics were discovered. In other cases, scientific studies don’t always back up the traditional claims–but on the other hand, they sometimes turn up completely unexpected benefits.
For example, a recent study by U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers showed that oregano is one of the best sources of antioxidants in your kitchen. (Antioxidants are thought to help prevent cancer, heart disease and stroke by counteracting tissue-damaging free radicals, charged particles generated by many sources, including pesticides, smoking and car exhaust.) Other items from your spice rack that pack a potent antioxidant punch are (in descending order) dill, thyme, rosemary and peppermint.
An even better example of unsuspected benefits turned up in other recent research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While examining the effects of common foods on blood sugar, the researchers discovered that apple pie, which they expected to have a bad effect, in fact had a good effect–obviously not because of the fat and sugar it contained, but because it was spiced with cinnamon.
Cinnamon contains a compound called MHCP that mimics insulin and works synergistically with it in cells. In a study organized in Pakistan by Alam Khan (one of the researchers involved in the U.S. study), volunteers with Type 2 diabetes were given one, three or six grams of cinnamon powder a day, in capsules after meals. All responded in weeks with blood sugar levels on average 20 percent lower than a control group’s. Some even achieved normal blood sugar levels. When they stopped taking cinnamon, their blood sugar levels started creeping up again. The effect is so strong, the researchers say, that even soaking a cinnamon stick in your tea could help lower your blood sugar.
Meanwhile, other recent research has focused on ginger. University of Minnesota researchers gave mice that lack an immune system gingerol, the main active component of ginger, three times a week, before and after injecting human colorectal tumor cells into their flanks. Control mice received the tumor cells, but not the gingerol. Mice consuming gingerol were less likely to develop tumors than the control mice and those they did develop were smaller and grew more slowly. The results suggest that ginger compounds may help prevent or work against colorectal cancers.
Then there are those chili peppers. Their heat comes from a chemical call capsaicin, a powerful alkaloid produced as a crystal by glands at the junction of the pepper’s placenta and pod walls. On the Scoville scale used to rate pepper heat, the well-known jalapeno is rated at 2,500, habanero peppers, the hottest know, are rated at 300,000 to 500,000–and pure capsaicin is rated at 16 million. Chemists only work with it in a filtered room and wearing full body protection, to avoid inhaling the powder. “It’s not toxic, but you wish you were dead if you inhale it,” says one researcher, speaking from bitter experience. A single milligram placed on bare skin would feel like a red-hot poker and raise a blister.
Yet, even this nasty substance has valuable medical properties. It stimulates circulation and, because it triggers pain receptor cells to release endorphins, the body’s natural pain-relieving substance, it’s used in topical drugs to ease the pain of arthritis and other ailments. The peppers themselves, meanwhile, are a good source of vitamins A, C, and E. They’re rich in folic acid and potassium, and low in calories and sodium
It really isn’t surprising that medical benefits are to be found in spices. According to the American Pharmaceutical Association, about 25 to 50 percent of prescription drugs contain at least one component derived from or modeled after a known plant.
Still, it’s always nice to know that something that tastes good is also good for us–especially considering how often science tells us the foods we’ve been enjoying for years aren’t good for us at all!
