Do you like some spice in your food? A little bit goes a long way to add zip to almost any dish, and the good news is that eating spicy food can do great things for your health! Keep reading for 7 health benefits of spicy food:
- Help you lose weight: Eating spicy food can speed up your metabolism, which will help you burn calories more quicky. It also reduces cravings for fatty, salty, and sweet foods, which means you’ll eat less of them.
- May help fight cancer: Components of certain spices have cancer preventative properties.
- Keeps your heart healthy: Spicy foods can lower bad cholesterol, lower blood pressure. Spicy foods are anti-inflammatory, which helps prevent heart attacks.
- Give you a nutritional boost: They are a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, and important minerals.
- They have anti-macrobial properties: They kill bad germs, especially the ones that cause ulcers.
- They are a good decongestant: Did you ever notice that eating spicy food makes your nose run. They’ll open up a stuffed nose and clear your sinuses.
- They make you happy: Spicy foods stimulate the release of feel-good hormones, which is why they’ve been shown to prevent depression.
Pass the sriracha and red pepper flakes!