Everyone knows the importance of a healthy diet. However, not everyone’s healthy diet looks the same. While there are all kinds of food items you could favor, one that has proven itself multiple times is the simple chili pepper thanks to the very compound that gives it its kick, capsaicin.
Begin Your Day with a Chili Pepper
Capsaicin has a wide range of effects on the human body that go far past simply giving your taste buds a delightful kick.
One of these is that chili pepper capsaicin also triggers a mild form of the “fight or flight” instinct throughout your body. If you’ve ever unwittingly bitten into something spicy that you weren’t prepared for, you know what I’m talking about.
All of a sudden, your eyes go wide. Your muscles tense. You even sit up straight and your mind goes completely blank as you begin processing what just happened.
Sound familiar?
Hopefully, it doesn’t, but if you’ve ever found yourself in an emergency situation or took a punch to the face, you know the sensation: fight or flight.
How could this possibly be good for you?
Because chili pepper capsaicin doesn’t do any harm (unless you don’t like spicy food), but it will wake you right up.
Most people begin our days with a cup of coffee. This can lead to an addiction which results in headaches and other uncomfortable sensations when you try to wean yourself off. Even if you don’t get that far along, it’s no secret that coffee can cause jitters and lead to an eventual “crash” right around noon.
So start mixing a pepper or two into your morning routine and see if that doesn’t put a little chili-pepper-pep in your step.
Capsaicin Fights Tumors
There are far more impactful benefits to consuming chili pepper capsaicin on a regular basis, too. For one thing, men should be eating them regularly, as they seem to lower the risk of prostate cancer. While this form of cancer is, fortunately, quite treatable most of the time, it still affects about 14% of men.
It turns out chili pepper capsaicin is a natural enemy to other forms of cancer, too. It’s been proven to activate cell receptors that line your intestines. This creates an environment that lowers your chances of getting tumors.
Scientists aren’t sure why this is, but it seems as though chili pepper capsaicin turns off an over-active receptor that would otherwise lead to the growth of tumors.
Tests have been done on mice that are chosen because of their genetic predisposition to developing tumors. Not only did capsaicin reduce these tumors, they also extended the length of the critters’ lives, as well.
What we know for sure is that chili pepper capsaicin has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant qualities which have even shown the potential to treat cancer. As we touched on earlier, research has shown that this spicy compound suppresses prostate cancer cell growth without doing any harm to normal cells.
In one study done on the effects of chili pepper capsaicin, mice with prostate cancer cells lost 80% of them when treated. Capsaicin even shrunk tumors to about a fifth the size of those that were not exposed to this compound.
Capsaicin Burns Fat
Although most of us associate “burn” and chili pepper capsaicin with the sensation it gives to our tongues, it also helps keep your waistline trim.
First, it literally does burn calories because capsaicin engages your metabolism. While we’re not saying this will make up for an extra helping of Buffalo wings, adding some chili peppers to your diet will tear through calories quicker than if you leave them out.
It gets better, though. Studies have shown that chili pepper capsaicin actually works with the brain, too. Some have been done on the effects of using it through surgery to destroy nerve fibers that otherwise help produce fat.
This hasn’t proven 100% safe, yet, but the good news is that you may not have to wait for these surgical procedures to lose weight with chili peppers. Casein may also shrink your existing fat tissue and lower blood fat levels. It also shows a correlation with the production of protein changes that fight fat buildup in your body.
Of course, for many people, it’s simply harder to eat large portions of spicy food. As long as you plan your meals accordingly, you’ll have a much easier time with portion control if you add some kick to your plate.
Finally, if you combine chili pepper capsaicin with the piperine from black peppers, your body will burn as many calories as it would if you walked 20 minutes. So if you live 20 minutes from a great wing place, you could walk there and back and burn 60 calories in the process.
Note: black peppers are also associated with a number of health benefits, too, so you’ll be doing double duty by eating both throughout the day.
Capsaicin May Help Prevent Type II Diabetes
Back in 2006, a study was done that showed that if a meal contained a chili pepper, the body needed less insulin to process it. Furthermore, when people made these peppers a regular staple in their meals, less and less insulin was needed over time.
Capsaicin contains vitamin C, carotenoids and antioxidants, all of which may help with improving insulin regulation.
Also, as we covered earlier, this compound can go a long way toward lowering the amount of body fat in your body. Combined with its effects on insulin, this is a great food to fight off the onset of type II diabetes, something which has become a serious problem around the world.
If you aren’t a fan of spicy foods, it’s understandable that you may want to ignore the evidence and stick to your current diet.
However, like most things, chili peppers are something you can learn to enjoy over time. After all, if you currently eat a healthy diet on a regular basis, it probably took a lot of dedication to begin this habit and then stick to it.
Treat chili peppers the same way and you’ll soon be enjoying the healthy benefits of capsaicin.