These Spices May Help You Achieve Your Weight Loss Goals
July 16, 2018 | 2,303 views
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By Dr. Mercola
Spices are the key to creating a flavorful and colorful dish. Different blends of spices have been used to create the complex and contrasting flavor profiles that differentiate one cuisine from another.
They’re considered an integral part of cooking, and were once so highly priced that they even sparked war and influenced trading systems.
Nowadays, you can easily obtain fresh spices right from your own garden or from grocery shelves. Adding a dash or two of these into your food is an excellent way to kick its flavor up a notch. But did you know that the benefits of spices go far beyond flavor and cooking?
These kitchen treasures lend flavor to your dish without drastically increasing its fat, sugar, salt or calorie content. Some spices even contain valuable nutrients and provide medicinal properties that may help boost your health and promote weight loss.
Shed Off Excess Pounds With the Help of These Spices
You don’t have to deprive yourself of delicious foods just to lose weight. In fact, eating a low-calorie meal that’s rich in spices may help you feel satiated, since it allows you to enjoy rich flavors without running the risk of gaining weight. Some of the spices may help with weight management include:
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Cinnamon: It may help improve your metabolism, allowing you to burn more calories. Cinnamon may also help regulate blood sugar levels and improve insulin resistance in people with Type 2 diabetes.
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Ginger: This has long been valued for its powerful medicinal properties, which include the ability to improve gastric motility.
Its anti-inflammatory properties may also help promote weight stability, improve insulin sensitivity and reduce fatty acids.
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Chili powder: This powder contains the active ingredient capsaicin, which may help aid weight loss by increasing your energy and stimulating brown fat, a type of fat that generates heat by helping you burn calories.
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Turmeric: This spice contains the active compound curcumin, which may help you lose weight by inhibiting the regrowth of fat cells and reducing inflammation, which contributes to obesity.
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Garlic powder: Foods that are flavored with garlic powder may keep you from eating too much because of its strong flavor.
Garlic may also help increase your body’s temperature, which is a sign of improved metabolism. As your body generates heat, it burns off excess calories.
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Mustard seed: Not only does it contain capsaicin, but it also has the phytochemical allyl isothiocyanates, which may help improve metabolism.
Remember to steer clear from mustard that’s neon yellow in color, as it’s loaded with sugar and inferior in terms of health benefits.
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Cumin: This may be useful for weight loss, as it helps suppress your appetite and keep fat cells from showing up again after you’ve lost weight.
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Siberian ginseng: It has long been known for its ability to help speed up metabolism and boost energy. It may also help keep stress and fatigue at bay, which may come in handy during exercise.
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Cardamom: Known as the “queen of spices,” cardamom is a thermogenic herb that may help improve your metabolic function.
It may also help soothe your digestive system, enhance your digestion and lower your blood sugar levels.
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Black pepper: It contains the active compound piperine, which helps keep new fat cells from forming. Piperine may also help lower cholesterol levels, alleviate inflammation and relieve digestive problems.
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More Tips to Help Keep Excess Weight at Bay
Aside from adding nutritious spices into your diet, you also need to adopt healthy dietary and lifestyle habits to reach and maintain a healthy body weight. Here are a few more tips to follow:
- Optimize your vitamin D levels: Vitamin D deficiency may hinder your body’s ability to maintain a healthy weight. A study published in the Journal of Women’s Health shows that women aged 65 years and older experienced mild weight gain along with low vitamin D levels.
To improve your vitamin D levels, get regular, sensible sun exposure and consume foods that are rich in this vitamin. If you’re unable to get sun exposure or consume vitamin D-rich foods, you should consider taking vitamin D3 supplement.
- Exercise regularly: Having a consistent exercise routine is important when it comes to maintaining your ideal body weight and keeping your muscles firm and strong. Regular exercise also helps improve your insulin and leptin levels, which may help inhibit obesity and metabolic disorders.
- Add fiber to your diet: Eating a high-fiber diet may help suppress your appetite. Some good examples of fiber-rich foods include green leafy vegetables, chia seeds, psyllium seed husk and almonds.
Another way to reach your weight loss goal is through intermittent fasting. This method retrains your body to burn fat as its primary fuel instead of sugar. It involves restricting your meals to twice a day within a window of six to eight hours, allowing you to fast for 14 to 16 hours. You also need to reduce your carb intake and increase your consumption of healthy fats.
For more information about the health benefits of spices and other ways to manage a healthy weight, read “
Spicy Foods Offer Much More Than Heat.”