Spicing For Your Food For More Than Taste

Everyone wants their food to taste good.  Many people look for different ways to prepare their food, so the taste of basic foods like chicken, rice, vegetables is new.  Spices and herbs can transform the way a food tastes.  Just pick up any of the food magazines at the grocery checkout counter or watch the food network and see this firsthand.

For thousands of years spices and herbs have been used for health benefits.  Ancient Chinese medicine used various spices and herbs as well as ancient Egypt.  In Ayurveda spicing is done according to one's body type.  Each spice has its own taste type: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, astringent or pungent.  The taste type has a physical, natural quality that suits the body type.  Usually, spicing is done using a mixture of different spices because a blend has a synergistic effect thereby giving a better result.  The spicing helps promote food absorption which maximizes nutrition for the body.

Mc Cormick & Co.  is the world's largest spice company and they are currently researching the health benefits of spices in food.  This research differs from other research since it uses spices and herbs in food rather than concentrated forms in pills.  Clearly, Mc Cormick & Co. has a vested interest in promoting spicing but their research studies have an advisory board that is very broad and members do not have ties or obligations to Mc Cormick & Co.  Some of the trials conducted have shown many noteworthy findings.  One trial found that people who ate burgers spiced with oregano, rosemary, paprika and cumin had a reduced number of oxidized lipids floating in the blood as opposed to people that ate a burger seasoned only with salt.  Another trial found ginger to ease pain in muscles after exercise.  Marinating meat before grilling helps kill cancer-causing compounds produced during the grilling process.

It is interesting that modern science is confirming knowledge and practice that has been done in ancient societies.  Spicing your food doesn't just make you a good cook, it also makes you a natural healer.

Stay healthy & well,
Lisa