Making Healthy Dietary Choices: Spices And Herbs Help Replace Sodium

Research shows that proper nutrition is essential when it comes to leading a healthy life. Now, findings published in the journal Nutrition examine how herbs and spices can elevate the chances of healthy dietary choices. 

"We now understand that spices and herbs have a meaningful role to play in bringing flavor to the forefront of today's health and wellness conversations," said Johanna Dwyer, DSc, RD, professor of medicine and community health at Tufts University School of Medicine, in a news release. "It will take all of us working together - from scientists to chefs and product developers to policy makers - before we can really begin to improve public health through flavorful eating."

For the study, researchers examined how spices and herbs help to improve health on five different levels.

First, they studied the use of the ingredients and how they can increase people's acceptance of healthy foods. Then, researcher James O. Hill, Ph.D., from the University of Colorado and the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center examined how spices and herbs help low-fat meals become more appealing.

Secondly, they studied how herbs and spices can help replace sodium intake. Researchers from Johns Hopkins discovered that participants who used spices and herbs also consumed an average of 966 milligrams of sodium less than the group that did not use these ingredients.

Thirdly, researchers conducted a story at Maastricht University and discovered that using red pepper spice helped increase satiety while boosting metabolism that helped with weight management.

Findings at Penn State University showed that blended spices helped reduce heart disease risk factors and research at Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center also suggested that cinnamon helped with blood glucose levels and insulin sensitivity.

Researchers believe that based on the compilation of these 16 articles, they can potentially increase the use of herbs and spices into the average individual's diet.