There’s a battle waging in your mouth. Victories by either side can leave emotional scars that won’t serve you kindly. Weight gaining foods offer the guilt and regret you feel after inhaling a family sized pizza because every bite tasted like you wanted just one more slice. Weight loss foods offer the opposite, frustration and boredom which you get from eating the dietary equivalents of watching cardboard exist. This can leave you feeling stuck in no man’s land, but if you can broker a peace deal between these two culinary opposites your health will be the true winner. The arbitrator best at striking this accord are spices. Small. Flaky. Dry. Little pieces of nothing, you’d hardly notice. Yet, they offer a powerful solution to making bland foods taste incredible. Here’s why a lack of knowledge about spices could be holding you back.
Spices offer functional flavor
A humble chicken breast. The ultimate symbol of weight loss. High in protein. Low in fat. Almost devoid of flavor. Stick with it and after a week-long breast binge you’ll never want to see another one. That is until you switch up your spice routine. Splurging on new spice combinations each week will give you a psychological break from the mundane taste sensations that cause so many people give up on healthy eating plans. Once you’ve stocked your spice rack, that same spice on different meats or vegetables will also taste refreshingly different, so embrace your inner foodie especially if you want to lose a little weight. Why? Well, it doesn’t matter what style of eating you choose, it only matters that you stick to it, if you want to lose weight, found a paper in the Journal of American Medical Association. The only way to effortlessly stick to an eating plan is to include variety in your diet, so you’ve got something new to look forward to when you’re hungry. It’s natural to crave new experiences for all your senses so when you focus on delivering this through spices then you’ll very quickly see how novelty drives improvements.
Spices protect you
You were designed to live a perfectly healthy life without having to cook food. Trouble is, meat is delicious and good for you in the right amounts, but it does demand cooking. When you cook animal protein on high heats, it can form cancer causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs). They’re the slightly charred bits on meat that taste so good. Luckily you can fight these off with flavor. A paper at Kansas State University found regular ole pepper and other spices like rosemary can protect you against the ill effects of HCAs. The more herbs you can tolerate the better, so if you’re flipping burgers on the barbecue then spice them to the maximum. You can even crumb your protein in spices to avoid the carbs and get pure hit of their benefits.
Most spices give your body all the ammunition it needs to fight disease while improving your health. Many spices have been used in ancient medicine to cure just about every ailment you can imagine so it’s smart to get a little heavy handed with your seasoning jar. You’ll be rewarded with lower levels of body fat, more muscle and a few extra nods of approval for your chef skills.
References:
Diet: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050111122137.htm
Pepper: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170516105047.htm
