From anti-inflammatory and antioxidant to having a profound effect on the gut microbiome, the properties of herbs and spices are various and broad.
Let’s consider why adding more herbs and spices to your meals is a pillar of your long-term health and diet.
But first…
A significant differentiation between the medicinal herbs I use in my practice and the culinary herbs and spices we’re adding to food.
It’s easy to blend the two, but the herbs I use in a clinical setting and often refer to in articles and podcasts on this site are “standardised” for professional use. When herbs are standardised, they have higher amounts of active ingredients that cause a therapeutic benefit.
Practitioners often look towards the amounts of these ingredients to give people the correct doses of herbs.
For example, curcumin, one of turmeric’s main ingredients, is an active constituent that is anti-inflammatory in the body. Some research suggests curcumin is as effective as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibruprofen in conditions such as osteoarthritis.[1]
To achieve this level of therapy in the body, though, as practitioners, we need to give either curcumin in high doses or turmeric with higher levels of curcumin added.
I’m sorry to say that you can’t simply add turmeric to your smoothie and get the same results as Ibruprofen in osteoarthritis yet.
This difference between the effects of professional clinic herbs and culinary herbs doesn’t mean there aren’t massive benefits.
However, there are still no standards or guidelines on how much we need to consume daily to elicit the benefits of culinary herbs and spices.
When I’m referring to culinary herbs or the herbs we are using in the kitchen, think of the favourites, namely, parsley, rosemary, cinnamon, sage, thyme, fennel, ginger and two of my favourites, oregano and paprika.
Primarily, western countries such as the USA, UK and Australia recommend using herbs and spices to flavour food to reduce salt intake.[2]
Herbs and spices could also help reduce sugar intake too.
An interesting study conducted in 2018 investigated whether or not adding culinary herbs and spices to foods lower in sugar would preserve the “hedonic liking” or, more simply put, the pleasure of eating.
As a side note, how funny are some of these studies?
I’ve never met anyone who used the term “hedonic liking,” but it seems I have now.
The conclusion of this study was a pertinent one. Adding culinary spices would be a promising strategy to reduce sugar in some foods without using low-calorie sweeteners.[3]
Why write an article dedicated to herbs and spices that are mainly flavour agents?
I genuinely believe that meals with higher levels of herbs and spices make home cooking delicious and sustainable. I think the study we’ve just touched on reinforces this.
And if you can make something more pleasurable, there is a better chance it can become a regular part of your health regime.
For example, one of the prescriptive diets I use in the clinic is a popular thirty-day elimination diet called the Whole 30. I’ve had numerous success stories using it to help people connect to their food again. One of the reasons I feel this is the case is the recipes in the official or affiliate recipe books are all loaded with what seems to be a minimum of four to five herbs and spices per recipe.
You might think that’s normal for most recipes when creating a flavour profile, but there’s more to it. A typical piece of feedback from people who’ve completed the process is that they found the meals they were putting together to be more delicious than those eaten when they weren’t on a restrictive diet.
This experience is called “diet satisfaction” and seems like a pretty good goal when piecing together some intentions around your diet, don’t you think?
In the back of my mind, I’m always happier because of the increased health benefits of herbs and spices. Beyond the vitamins and minerals in the meals themselves.
Not only that, if the meals are more delicious, there is a greater chance they’ll be recooked and enjoyed beyond the end of the protocol.
A few studies have demonstrated that seasoning vegetables with herbs and spices increased the selection and intake of vegetables in university and school cafeterias compared to unseasoned vegetables.[4] [5]
In some cases, people would choose larger servings of seasoned vegetables.[6]
The first thing that goes through my mind when I hear larger servings of vegetables?
More fibre and more vitamins and minerals!
All three are in significant deficit for most. The more exciting part of these studies and my experience with higher herb and spice intakes from my prescriptive diets is that these results indirectly occur from adding more flavour to food only.
We haven’t even touched on direct health benefits. Let’s do that now.
Just four weeks of a medium level of herbs and spices daily showed acute anti-inflammatory effects on immune markers for people at risk of cardiovascular disease.
Heart disease has been the third leading cause of death in Hong Kong, dating back to the 1960s.[7] In music terms, that’s almost sixty years at the top of the charts.
Over the last decade, research has begun to show that inflammation is the link between ageing and cardiovascular disease[8] and a potential origin story of atherosclerosis.[9]
One of the cells of the immune system, monocytes, is involved in critical ways in the development of cardiovascular disease.[10]
A study investigated people who added just the equivalent of a few teaspoons of herbs and spices daily over four weeks. Results showed an alteration in how the monocytes behaved and a reduction in the inflammatory markers associated with increased cardiovascular risk.[11]
Rosemary, oregano and marjoram contain bioactive compounds that may pave the way for better diabetes management.
These compounds are called flavonoids and seem to play a role in improving insulin secretion and signalling, two vital parts of managing diabetes.[12]
That’s not all. An evaluation of herbs and spices and their potential in diabetes found over nine hundred different compounds from culinary herbs with anti-diabetic qualities.[13]
Some specific herbs mentioned were fennel, licorice, saffron, cinnamon, lemongrass, rosemary, and oregano, which we’ve already mentioned.
All pretty standard members of our kitchen herb and spice collection.
Polyphenols are critical activators of the microbiome.
The flavonoids we mentioned from rosemary, oregano and marjoram are part of a larger group of compounds naturally occurring in plant-derived foods called polyphenols.
You can find polyphenols in grapes, onions, broccoli, onions and dark chocolate, but herbs and spices, especially in their dried form, contain higher levels of polyphenols in comparison.
These values are where I find herbs and spices underrated regarding their health benefits beyond flavour. For example, dark chocolate, famous for its high phenolic content, comes in at around nineteen hundred milligrams per hundred grams. In contrast, dried oregano’s total phenolic content comes in at just over six thousand milligrams per hundred grams, with cloves coming in at the top at just over sixteen thousand milligrams per hundred grams![14]
Polyphenols are most notably known for their antioxidant qualities but also have research on their anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects. One of the lesser-known qualities of polyphenols is their effect on the microbiome.
Dietary polyphenols have good evidence to show their role in the gut is almost prebiotic in nature. If you are new to prebiotics, an easy way to think of their role in the gut is to provide the energy for your probiotics to exert their benefits.
For example, in the case of polyphenols from herbs and spices, they contribute by stimulating the growth of Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacteria spp.[15]
The way you cook with herbs matters.
Let’s say you’ve gotten this far and are ready to add more herbs and spices to your food daily. Let’s review some essential tips to get the best out of it.
I love fresh herbs from a flavour point of view. However, remember that dried herbs will be best if you want the highest polyphenol count.
When it comes to cooking, a study looking at its impact on a number of our favourite culinary herbs and spices, including cinnamon, cloves, fennel, ginger, parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme in amounts used in the preparation of food.
Microwaving, simmering and stewing all increased the antioxidant capacity down to the heat, liberating the compounds. Cooking that involved dry heating, grilling and frying resulted in a decrease in antioxidant capacity.
This improved antioxidant capacity could explain why it’s often better to add fresh herbs to your meal during the simmering stage or at the end.
A reason to keep up your herb and spices intake daily.
Studies into the bioavailability of polyphenols from herbs tell us that the absorption into the body is relatively poor as they are often drawn up by gut bacteria, as we discussed earlier, absorbed by the liver or quickly eliminated by the body.
For example, estimates currently suggest up to ten per cent of the total phenolic content gets through to exert a beneficial action. Just ten per cent!
In my mind, this suggests that adding that little bit more for a more robust flavour may be the right thing to do in this case!
So what do you think?
This article aimed to try and transcend thinking of herbs and spices as purely flavour enhancers.
I think, even in an introductory way we’ve seen in this article, that the bioactive ingredients in the herbs and spices should be positioned together with the nutritious foods we covet for their health-boosting activity!
Hope this helps xx
References
[1] Paultre K, Cade W, Hernandez D, Reynolds J, Greif D, Best TM. Therapeutic effects of turmeric or curcumin extract on pain and function for individuals with knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2021;7(1):e000935. Published 2021 Jan 13. doi:10.1136/bmjsem-2020-000935
[2] Kristina S Petersen, Kristin M Davis, Connie J Rogers, David N Proctor, Sheila G West, Penny M Kris-Etherton, Herbs and spices at a relatively high culinary dosage improves 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure in adults at risk of cardiometabolic diseases: a randomized, crossover, controlled-feeding study, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 114, Issue 6, December 2021, Pages 1936–1948, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab291
[3] Peters JC, Marker R, Pan Z, Breen JA, Hill JO. The Influence of Adding Spices to Reduced Sugar Foods on Overall Liking. J Food Sci. 2018;83(3):814-821. doi:10.1111/1750-3841.14069
[4] Manero J, Phillips C, Ellison B, Lee SY, Nickols-Richardson SM, Chapman-Novakofski KM. Influence of seasoning on vegetable selection, liking and intent to purchase. Appetite. 2017;116:239-245. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2017.04.035
[5] Luu, Ly & Manero, Joanna & Lee, Soo-Yeun & Nickols-Richardson, Sharon & Chapman-Novakofski, Karen. (2020). Role of seasoning vegetables on consumer behavior: Purchase, intake, liking, and intention to pay for larger servings. Food Quality and Preference. 82. 103890. 10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.103890.
[6] Ly Luu, L. Luu, Soo-Yeun Lee, S. Lee, Sharon (Shelly) Nickols-Richardson, S. (Shelly) Nickols-Richardson, & Karen Chapman-Novakofski, K. Chapman-Novakofski. (0000). Larger serving size and seasoning’s role in consumer behaviors toward vegetables. Food quality and preference, 88, 104105. doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.104105
[7] https://www.healthyhk.gov.hk/phisweb/en/chart_detail/24/, viewed January 14th 2023.
[8] Henein MY, Vancheri S, Longo G, Vancheri F. The Role of Inflammation in Cardiovascular Disease. Int J Mol Sci. 2022;23(21):12906. Published 2022 Oct 26. doi:10.3390/ijms232112906
More references!
[9] Sorriento D, Iaccarino G. Inflammation and Cardiovascular Diseases: The Most Recent Findings. Int J Mol Sci. 2019;20(16):3879. Published 2019 Aug 9. doi:10.3390/ijms20163879
[10] Oh ES, Na M, Rogers CJ. The Association Between Monocyte Subsets and Cardiometabolic Disorders/Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2021;8:640124. Published 2021 Feb 17. doi:10.3389/fcvm.2021.640124
[11] Oh ES, Petersen KS, Kris-Etherton PM, Rogers CJ. Four weeks of spice consumption lowers plasma proinflammatory cytokines and alters the function of monocytes in adults at risk of cardiometabolic disease: secondary outcome analysis in a 3-period, randomized, crossover, controlled feeding trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2022;115(1):61-72. doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqab331
[12] Bower AM, Real Hernandez LM, Berhow MA, de Mejia EG. Bioactive compounds from culinary herbs inhibit a molecular target for type 2 diabetes management, dipeptidyl peptidase IV. J Agric Food Chem. 2014;62(26):6147-6158. doi:10.1021/jf500639f
[13] Pereira ASP, Banegas-Luna AJ, Peña-García J, Pérez-Sánchez H, Apostolides Z. Evaluation of the Anti-Diabetic Activity of Some Common Herbs and Spices: Providing New Insights with Inverse Virtual Screening. Molecules. 2019;24(22):4030. Published 2019 Nov 7. doi:10.3390/molecules24224030
[14] Opara EI, Chohan M. Culinary herbs and spices: their bioactive properties, the contribution of polyphenols and the challenges in deducing their true health benefits. Int J Mol Sci. 2014;15(10):19183-19202. Published 2014 Oct 22. doi:10.3390/ijms151019183
[15] Duda-Chodak A, Tarko T, Satora P, Sroka P. Interaction of dietary compounds, especially polyphenols, with the intestinal microbiota: a review. Eur J Nutr. 2015;54(3):325-341. doi:10.1007/s00394-015-0852-y
