If you want to give yourself a healthy boost, you may want to try adding more spicy food to your diet.
Sure, we grew up hearing milk does a body good, but it’s that extra spice that gives you an edge when it comes to everything from better heart health to weight loss.
Don’t believe us? Just try adding some extra spice to your diet, then see some of the benefits yourself. The first has to do with better heart health. There are studies out there that find a correlation between a decreased risk of stroke and heart attacks and those who regularly consume hot chilies. It’s thought hot chilies can help with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and even Type 2 diabetes.
There are other possible health benefits, too, that may inspire you to kick up your diet a notch on the heat scale. The capsaicin in hot peppers is thought to help with gut health and your gastrointestinal tract. If that’s not enough, there’s something called low-grade gut inflammation. It’s linked to obesity, and several studies point to hot chilies and spicy dishes as potentially reducing inflammation. Along those lines, a lot of us jump from diet to diet, fitness routine to, well let’s be real here, sometimes a lack of fitness altogether. We’re not saying you can give up exercise, but you can potentially help yourself lose weight by eating more hot peppers. That’s because upping the amount of capsaicin in your diet may help you burn more energy and break down fat better.
The metabolism boost is one thing, but some research also plays into the thought that eating hot chilies makes your brain think you’re full faster, so you eat and snack less throughout the day. So, how do you get the benefits? You still have to put in some work. You can’t eat fatty foods all the time and expect to see change. However, you can make a few healthy changes now, such as adding hot chilies to your stir fry, soup, or morning omelet. Also, remember your heat tolerance increases over time, so the amount of extra spice you enjoy now is likely to increase, and you’re more likely to want to try out new options on the Scoville scale in the future.
