Spices Common in Indian Cuisine has Immense Health Benefits

Featured Image Caption: Indian Spices Health Benefits

Spices have been used since long back owing to its medicinal and health enhancing benefits. According to various research conducted, spices have antioxidant properties and possess several disease fighting health benefits. Apart from the antioxidant properties, spices also have antibiotic properties that lead to reducing inflammation in the body.

Below are the highlights on selected spices with their health benefits:

Benefits of Cinnamon

• Effective in Diabetes: Cinnamon is an antioxidant affluent spice as well as a healthy substitute to sugar for the purpose of flavoring foods. This dried bark spice has been traditionally used for several medicinal benefits including balancing the levels of blood glucose as well as enhancing the function of immune system. Cinamon contains compounds called polyphenols and mineral, chromium that participates in process improvement of production of insulin in the body. The hormone insulin thus transports glucose from food into your cells where it gets utilized to fuel body reaction and processes.
• Acts as a Weight Loss: It acts as effective agent to reduce fat. It slows down the emptying of stomach, thus reducing blood sugar spikes. It ostensibly helps to digest your food more perfectly, which means that you will extract more nutrients from the supplied amount of the food. Being a powerful anti-bacterial substance, it helps to get rid of bad bacteria in the stomach. Ceylon Cinnamon is the best choice for weight loss program as it has low Coumarin levels and won’t damage your liver if taken daily.

Additional Benefits:

Stirring a teaspoon of cinnamon into your coffee adds more than one gram of fiber to your diet. Cinnamon also gives small amount of vitamins K, C and minerals like iron and manganese.

Dosage and Precautions

• According to the Cleveland Clinic, a dosage of 1 to 4 grams of cinnamon per day is highly recommended.
• High doses of cinnamon in the body can suppress the central nervous system and possess a toxic effect on the liver in certain cases.

Benefits of Cayenne Pepper

Cayenne is a healthy stimulant and has abstruse therapeutic properties. Capsaicin is the main ingredient present in Cayenne that burns extra calories in your body. Cayenne Pepper is shown to be effective especially in weight loss and increases your energy usage by abolishing your craving. Scientists have believed that participants who took Cayenne Pepper for breakfast were found to have less appetite leading to less calorie intake throughout the day. It also helps to keep normal blood pressure levels and balances the body LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

Benefits of Ginger

• Ginger consumption has profound effect on high cholesterol level that is often attributed to obesity. It can improve digestion by increasing pH of the stomach and by stimulating the digestive enzymes. Owing to its high fiber content, it increases the gastrointestinal motility. The process together ingests food more efficiently, thus contributing to weight loss.
• Being a thermogenic agent, it helps to burn fat by increasing the rate of metabolism. This not only translates to weight loss, but also reduces the cholesterol and triglyceride level.
• Ginger can improve weight loss by enhancing the feeling of fullness after the meal.

Benefits of Black Pepper

Piperine is a substance in black pepper that is responsible for its pungency. Apart from the antioxidant properties, piperine reduces the fat levels in the body. This substance fights fat by blocking the formation of new fat cells. It acts as a very good source to aid proper assimilation of food. Its outer layer contains potent phytonutrients that stimulates the breakdown of fat. It also promotes sweating and urination resulting in getting rid of excess water and toxins from the body. All these activities together promotes in weight loss.

Benefits of Mustard Seeds

Mustard seeds are being used as spices to flavor your dishes. As they are low in calories and carbohydrates, hence, it acts as a beneficial agent for weight loss. One tablespoon of mustard seed contains 53 calories, 3.2 g total fat, 0.2 g saturated fat, 0.6 milligram sodium, 3.9 g total carbohydrate, 1.6 g total fiber, 2.8 g protein, 0.1 mg Vitamin B1, and traces of other vitamins, 94 milligrams of phosphorous etc. High percentage of dietary fiber means it offers high ratio of carbohydrates to fiber. Fiber is an important part of your diet that keeps your proper digestion process.