Spice up your day!

Spice up your day!

I assume that we all know that we should eat a healthy, well balanced diet. In the media there was a lot about the health benefits of spices recently. Well, people have known for centuries that foods have healing properties. Spices have been known to be good for your health for centuries as well. The Chinese medicine, not that I know very much about it, uses spices. We do not really need scientists to find evidence that spices are, indeed, good for you and that eating a chilly a day may boost your memory and aids losing brown fat in your body.

This can taste nice. People undergoing chemotherapy have told me that they can only eat their breakfast without being too nauseous after having a stem ginger cookie.

I always have been known to try everything new in the food sector as soon as it was available, be it quinoa, hemp- or chia-seeds or turmeric. There is a warning that goes with it. If your system is not used to the substance you want to use for health benefits it might trigger sensitivities. I once had a colleague and she was almost addicted to amaranth. She had to tear the package open and eat it as soon as she got into the house. At the same time she had a horribly itchy rash on her thighs. It was so bad that she couldn't sleep at night. Only after she showed it to me and I told her that I had exactly the same itchy rash after eating amaranth she told me that she is almost addicted to it. As soon as she stopped eating it, the rash disappeared.  The other thing is that you have to watch when you are eating spices for health benefits. The sprinkle of cinnamon on your porridge might be tasty and levels your blood sugar out but should you really do it for breakfast when your blood sugar level is low anyway after the night?

So before you jump on the spice band wagon do a bit of research and find out what is best for you and fits your needs and likings. I don't like quinoa when it is cooked for half an hour because I find it too mushy. The same for chia seeds. Soaked they are too mushy for me but they give me constipation when I eat them unsoaked. A little bit of advice at the end: Don't eat things just for the health benefits if you really don't like them. Been there, done that. It doesn't work. What you don't like is not good for you but try it first!