5 Benefits of Eating Spicy Food for Health
For spicy food lovers, life feels incomplete if you eat side dishes without the presence of chilies or chili sauce for your dining companions until sweat runs down your forehead.
Blessed are you who cannot live without chili sauce. It turns out that, apart from functioning as a flavor enhancer and arouse your appetite, research shows that chili sauce has a variety of hidden positive effects on your health.
Chili – red, green, cayenne, curly, to jalapeño – is rich in capsaicin. Capsaicin is a bioactive component which has many benefits against infection resistance. Reporting from Huffington Post, Capsaicin when used as a local treatment can help relieve pain. Eating chilies can also help improve the performance of the body’s immune system, as well as stimulate the kidneys, lungs and heart.
Still need to be convinced? Here are 5 reasons that might surprise you why spicy food is good for you.
1. Lose weight
Research reveals that the sensation of heat from capsaicin encourages the stimulation of brown fat which can boost the body’s metabolic performance by up to five percent. Increasing the work of the body’s metabolism will result in more optimal fat burning, which reaches 16 percent. This means that dipping fried chicken with your favorite red chili sauce is tantamount to burning calories. Other studies have also shown that capsaicin has a thermogenic effect that can make the body burn extra calories for twenty minutes after eating. Wow, that’s not bad, huh?
The above study also supports previous studies linking consumption of red chilies in high doses of caplets with decreased appetite and increased calorie burning activity. These two studies succeeded in concluding that chili peppers – in both high doses and the normal dose in regular cooking recipes – offer the same benefits. In addition, eating spicy food also helps suppress appetite and cravings, and reduce the number of calories you eat.
Eits, don’t be happy just yet. Of course, reaching the ideal body weight cannot only be achieved by spending plates of chili sauce. Eating spicy food for a diet program is okay, but it is also accompanied by regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle, huh!
2. Better heart health
Studies show that cultures that eat the most spicy foods (yes, Indonesia too!) Have a lower incidence of heart attacks and strokes. The reason is that the capsaicin in chilies is effective at lowering bad cholesterol (LDL) levels and increasing good cholesterol (HDL) levels in the body.
The vitamins A and C in chilies strengthen the heart muscle walls, and the warm sensation of capsaicin can increase blood circulation in the body and cause – if not absolutely – a drop in blood pressure due to the effect of nitric oxide in capsaicin on dilating blood vessels.
Capsaicin can also help prevent blood clots. In fact, capsaicin is still being researched for its ability to treat blood circulation problems, hardening of the arteries, and abnormal heart rhythms (cardiac arrhythmias).
3. Long life
Quoting Health Based on a large study from China, spicy food lovers can have a higher chance of longevity – even if only slightly – than those who do not like to eat spicy food at all. The results of the study concluded that people who ate spicy food almost every day had a 14% reduced risk of death, and those who ate spicy food only twice a week had a 10% lower risk of death compared to people who ate spicy food only once. a week.
Among female participants, those who like to eat spicy food were associated with lower mortality from cancer, as well as heart disease and respiratory problems.
4. Prevent cancer and tumors
Capsaicin has been shown to activate cell receptors in the inner lining of the intestine to create a reaction that reduces the risk of tumor growth by turning off over-reactive receptors.
Reporting from Self, according to the American Association for Cancer Research, the compound capsaicin (which is also found in turmeric) has the ability to kill certain types of cancer and leukemic cells. Researchers also found that capsaicin was able to kill 80 percent of prostate cancer (in mice) without harming the surrounding normal cells.
Capsaicin has also been linked to effectiveness in the treatment of breast, pancreatic, and bladder cancers, although you may have to take an inadequate amount of capsaicin for this to work – for example, five habanero peppers a week.
Chili peppers also have anti-inflammatory properties. Chili is considered very effective for protecting you from ulcers (ulcers) in the stomach. Stomach ulcers are caused by H.pylori bacteria that cause boils to grow, and capsaicin can help to kill these bacterial colonies. One study found that people who regularly consumed Chinese food, which contained less concentrations of capsaicin, were three times more likely to develop ulcers in the stomach than a group of participants who ate spicy Malay or Indian foods that had higher concentrations of spices and capsaicin. .
5. Relieve sinusitis
Surely you have never noticed how the nose becomes suddenly runny when it is hot. The capsaicin in chilies is similar to the compound found in many decongestant medicinal herbs, so the spicier your chili sauce, the runny your nose will be.
If you have a cold, it’s a good idea to add a pinch of dried chili powder to a cup of warm tea. Drinking slowly while inhaling the warm steam will help stimulate the mucous membranes lining your nasal passages to drain mucus, so you can breathe better. In addition, capsaicin is also rich in vitamin A, which helps strengthen mucous membranes. The mucus membrane acts as a barrier to prevent bacteria from entering the body through the nose.
Don’t overeat spicy food either
Now that you understand the various potential health benefits of eating spicy food, don’t overdo it in order to achieve your dream of living a healthy life.
You may want to limit spicy foods at night. Eating spicy food just before bedtime can cause indigestion that makes it almost certainly difficult for you to sleep well. Even if you are among those who can eat spicy food without having to get a bad stomach, chili and spicy foods are associated with long waking hours at night and taking longer to sleep soundly, due to capsaicin which affects your sleep patterns by changing your body temperature. .
As for how much spicy food you need to consume to get its benefits, doctors and experts recommend that you start including chilies and turmeric in your diet at least 2-3 times a week – whether eaten raw, used as chili sauce, a marinade for grill dishes, stir fry. , or roasted whole.
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Hello Health Group does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
