The Power of Herbs & Spices
Herbs are the best of both worlds: food and medicine. Adding just a little spice to your life goes a long way toward improving your health. Herbs such as black and red pepper, rosemary, oregano, thyme, turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon all have one thing in common: they support healthy microbes and hinder unhealthy ones.
Double Duty
Herbs that improve digestion and absorption also improve heart health and circulation. In fact, the mechanism for both is the same. The vasodilation (blood vessel dilating) properties of piperine found in black pepper are also responsible for enhancing the absorption of curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, making black pepper and turmeric the perfect pair.
The same polyphenolic antioxidant compounds responsible for many of the medicinal health properties of herbs and spices are also the flavor components that protect cooking oils from overheating and rancidity. For this reason, you'll gain both enhanced flavor and fatty acid integrity by adding spices to your cooking oil. The aromatherapy is an added bonus!
Dietary & Herbal Diversity
You may know the important health benefits of eating an ever-expanding variety of colorful plant foods—at least 30 different plants per week is a good goal. It’s not as hard as it might sound, especially when you consider that each herb and spice count toward this target goal.
Cultures around the world that consume the greatest plant diversity have some of the healthiest gut biomes and overall health. Personally, I find it easy and enjoyable to consume about 20 different plants per day!
Dietary diversity is for all of us, and there are at least eight solid science reasons to expand our eating horizons:
Increase micro- and phyto-nutrient density
Fatty acid fermentation
Reduced inflammation
Minimize the development of allergic hypersensitivity by avoiding overexposure to the same food antigens
Improve memory and cognition
Bioactivate vitamin D
Immune resilience
A healthier diversified microbiome
The biome of each plant feeds different colonies of beneficial gut bacteria. The wider plant variety we eat the greater diversity & health of our biome. And there's more to the saying "eat the rainbow" than meets the eye. It's rather simple, color leads to more color. Color changes mood, mood changes behavior and metabolic performance. Both the food nutrient and the therapeutic medicinal properties of herbs and spices are a smart and tasteful way to greater dietary diversity.
I could ask you what your favorite herbs and spices are, but “favorite” can get you in a rut. A more meaningful question is what new herbs and different spices are you planning to try?
Karl Mincin is a Functional Medicine Nutritionist in practice for 36 years. 360.336.2616 | Nutrition-Testing.com | Instagram @MincinNutritionist | Facebook @NutritionTesting1