December 15, 2015
Published in: Wicked Local
By: Camille Hendsbee, RD, LDN/Daily News Correspondent
It used to be the fashion to have a spice rack on your kitchen wall displaying all those gems from around the world. Not much anymore though - the trend is to be sleek and trim hiding things away in your kitchen cabinets. I say unleash these nutritional wonders. We are creatures of our environment and if those spices are visible chances are we will tend to use them when we cook.
Spices and herbs are amazing. Think about what they are - dried concentrated plants, and we know that plants are great for us because research has shown us that humans thrive best on a predominantly plant based diet. People have known this for a long time which is what spurred on some of the early explorations -that quest to find a short cut to China and its spices.
The goodness comes from the fact that spices and herbs are high in antioxidants, those phytochemicals that ward us away from disease state including many cancers. The top seven spices/herbs hold the greatest potential to support health and are as follows:
- Cinnamon
- Oregano
- Turmeric (yellow curry)
- Red pepper
- Ginger
- Thyme
- Rosemary
Besides providing antioxidants spices/herbs flavor food so nicely as to encourage appetite in people that need to increase their intake . The converse is also true - that spices/herbs can make those who are trying to lose weight be satisfied with smaller portions. Adding spices to low fat sour cream or plain dressing for instance has shown to increase vegetable intake among preschool children, according to an article by Savage, Peterson and Marini, et al, in the 2013 Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
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