7 Health Benefits of Spicy Food

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Hot spices, like chili pepper, not only make your food rich in flavors, but they also contain compounds that recent research suggests could actually be good for your health. Here is a list of 7 health benefits of spicy food:

1. Spicy food boosts your metabolism

Spicy foods have been shown to help with weight loss. Data from several studies indicate that certain spices, including peppers, and chilies, can raise your metabolic resting rate by up to 5 percent and slow down your appetite.

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2. Improves digestion

Chili peppers contain a compound called capsaicin, which increases the digestive fluids in the stomach. This can help speed up the digestion process and relieve diarrhea.

3. Decreases depression

Capsaicin has been shown to work as an endorphin, which makes you feel better and decreases the risk of depression, anger, anxiety and stress.

4. Keeps your heart healthy

Capsaicin helps fight inflammation, which has been proven as a risk factor for heart issues. Chili peppers also reduce the damaging effects of your "bad" cholesterol. Keeping your heart healthy ensures that it keeps blood pumping to the rest of the body.

5. Helps kill bacteria

Your gut consists of trillions of different bacteria and microbes. Studies have shown that capsaicin may decrease the "bad" bacteria in the gut while encouraging the growth of all the "good" ones.

6. Helps fight cancer cells

Capsaicin also works as an antioxidant, protecting cells the free radicals that can cause cancer. Researchers in the UK have found that capsaicin can also cause cancer cells to self-destruct. It attacks the bad cells without harming any of the good surrounding tissues.

7. Spicy food and pain relief

Topical creams with capsaicin work as an analgesic by desensitizing nerves in the skin and lowering substance P, a pain chemical in the body. It can help relieve pain in people with osteoarthritis, diabetes nerve pain, and post-herpetic neuralgia.

This article was previously published on UAE Moments. To see the original article, click here