Herbs & Spices for Better Health: What to Know - Ask a Nutritionist

Transcript: 

Amy: Welcome to Dishing of Nutrition's midweek segment, “Ask a Nutritionist”. I am Amy Crum, a Registered and Licensed Dietitian, and today we will be discussing herbs and spices. We're going to delve into all benefits of different herbs and spices. So often we think of them just for flavor, but herbs and spices have lots of other benefits that we'll talk about today.

They contain phytochemicals which naturally occur in the plant to help protect them from pests and diseases, that when we eat the phytochemicals, they help us by being antioxidants and are anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial. Today we'll talk more about the types of herbs and spices, how to use them, the benefits of specific herbs and spices, and what to look for when you're buying them.

Description of what herbs & spices are

Let's go through a quick description of what herbs and spices are. Herbs are the fresh or dried leaves of non woody herbaceous plants. Spices are the aromatic or pungent part of plants that aren't the leaves. That could be the roots, bark, seeds, fruits or flowers. Spices usually have stronger flavors and are often from tropical regions, and so some plants have both herbs and spices.

I think it's interesting that coriander seeds come from the same plant that produces cilantro leaves. You can use herbs dry or fresh. Fresh herbs are usually ideal for adding at the end of cooking as a garnish or on salads because they have those good aromatics that do best with fresh.

Dried herbs have a stronger flavor by volume than fresh, and they're best used while cooking. You only need to use about a third of the amount of dried herbs as you would fresh. So think of a ratio of one teaspoon of dried herbs to a tablespoon of fresh. Leafy and delicate herbs like basil, parsley, chives, dill, and tarragon lose their flavor when dried. Herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano sage, and bay leaves hold up better when they're dry, especially for dishes that are cooked longer, like soups and stews.

Dried herbs last about one to three years and ground spices last about two to four years. Dry herbs lose some potency after about a year. Whole spices: think allspice and peppercorns last about three to four years. They'll start having a stale taste if they're too old. So it's a good reminder to use those herbs and spices up.

How many stories have you heard about someone looking at the expiration date on herbs in their pantry and find dates that are five, 10, maybe 15 years past their expiration date? I hope I give you lots of reasons why you want to regularly use herbs in the kitchen and maybe take a look at how old the ones you currently have are, and replace a few.

Benefits of different herbs & spices

So besides adding flavor, are herbs and spices good for you? The answer is a resounding yes. They have antioxidants in them, they're anti-inflammatory, and have other substances that offer a variety of health benefits. They can protect cells from being damaged, reduce inflammation, improve blood sugar, improve heart health, just to name a few benefits.

Let's go over a few specific herbs and spices and the benefits of them. Cinnamon is one that studies have shown can help lower blood sugar, specifically the Celon variety, which may help with insulin sensitivity or to make insulin work better in your body. A study in 2019 showed that people with diabetes who used a rounded teaspoon of ground cinnamon daily, twice a day for three months, had improvements in their A1C, fasting insulin and lowered their BMI.

Turmeric contains curcumin, which can be anti-inflammatory. Studies have shown that it can interfere with several cancer related pathways and stop the cell growth of cancer. Turmeric can also help with memory, heart health, and can decrease the pain of arthritis.

Garlic has multiple antimicrobial components with the allicin in it being the most researched. Allicin can be active against pathogens and their toxins. Garlic can also support heart health and improve blood pressure and cholesterol.

Ginger is also an antioxidant and can ease nausea. Some studies have shown that saffron and cardamom may help with mood, anxiety, and depression. One last one I'll mention is cayenne pepper, which can help with pain relief, heart health, and may support digestion as well.

So those are just a few of the herbs and spices that are out there and their benefits. I would love to go through all the benefits of specific herbs and spices, but I think we would be here all day. So I'll add in one more study though, and this is from Penn State and they had the participants use a blend of herbs and spices and found that those that added it to their meal had lower inflammation markers in their blood work compared to when they ate a meal with less or no spices on it. So I hope you can see the benefits of those herbs and know that the more variety, the better.

After hearing all of those health benefits, I'd like to challenge you to find a way to increase the herbs and spices you eat this week. Adding herbs and spices can give foods so much more flavor and aroma and give your meals more color and variety.

Adding them to foods can help make real whole foods more appealing and enhance your eating experience. You can transform a meal by changing the different herbs and spices in it, and there's lots of ways to do this.

Recipes to consider trying with various herbs & spices

I have a few recipes you might want to try. The first is on our website, weightandwellness.com, grilled steak with chimichurri. The chimichurri sauce is delicious on the steak, but you can also try it with a variety of other foods too. You can put it on grilled meats, vegetables or on top of eggs. And our recipe combines olive oil with garlic, red wine vinegar, and a full cup of parsley.

Another great spice to add in is curry. We have lots of great recipes with curry in them that are tasty and bring lots of those good benefits that go along with curry. One of my favorites is the Indian curry recipe and that has chicken thighs with vegetables and a delicious curry sauce on top.

I think cinnamon is a spice that's pretty universally liked, especially around this fall season. We have a wonderful recipe for apple cinnamon pork on the website that I actually have in the crockpot today. It smells just like fall. Cinnamon can be added to smoothies, and we have a recipe for a warm apple pie smoothie on the website that uses cinnamon.

I have to say my favorite recipe that uses cinnamon is sauteed apples. You cook chopped apples and a little butter or coconut oil, and then add some cinnamon and nuts to it, and it's one of my very favorite desserts. Another good recipe on our website is the salmon bake recipe. It costs for two tablespoons of minced fresh herbs, and you could use basil, dill, tarragon, or thyme, and it's a great way to use what you have up in the fridge.

Tips for storing & using herbs

If you do find yourself throwing away leftover fresh herbs that you just, you needed a little for, for a recipe, and then they ended up going bad in the back of the fridge, I have a few tips for you. One is to freeze the fresh herbs in ice cube trays. You can chop up whatever you need to use up. Put them in ice cube trays and then cover it with olive oil or melted butter before you put it in the freezer.

Then you can pop it out the freezer, pop the frozen cube out, and use it for cooking in the future. You can also make a pesto out of the leafy herbs and freeze it for later. Basil's, the most common one you think of, but you could also use cilantro, parsley, mint, or dill. You can also add sprigs of herbs to water.

Mint is a common one, but rosemary, basil and lavender can also be used for a refreshing and flavorful drink. Teas could also be a good way to add in some herbs. To do this, you pour hot water over fresh or dried herbs and let them steep for five to 15 minutes, and then strain the tea before you serve it.

Use about one to two teaspoons of dried herbs or two to four teaspoons of fresh herbs per eight ounces of water. And you want to cover the herbs while they steep to keep the flavor in the tea. One of my very favorite herbs to make tea out of is lemon veranda.

Can you overdo herbs & spices?

So this brings us to another question. Can you overdo herbs and spices? It's unlikely that you're going to overdo herbs and spices when cooking and adding them to foods. You're going to notice that you added too many, like a flavor, being too strong on the food. It's usually best to start out with smaller measurements of them and then gradually increase to your desired taste.

Health issues with taking too many herbs might be an issue if you're using really large quantities of them. Usually this wouldn't be in cooking, but may possibly be an issue in someone that's brewing a lot of tea with herbs and ingesting a lot that way. So if you're someone who's drinking herbal tea all day long, it might be a good idea to make sure you're not overdoing any specific herbs.

The fact that herbs have all of these great health benefits we talked about in your body shows that they do have an affect when you consume them. So taking too much could cause issues too.

I'll talk about a few specific spices to look out for. Eating more than two to three teaspoons at a time of nutmeg can lead to nausea and also hallucinations and seizures. Very large doses of oregano can lead to GI issues and issues with blood clotting, and two to four tablespoons of pepper at a time can slow down enzymes that break down medications in your body so you could end up with high levels of the meds in your body that can be dangerous.

So as you can see, the doses I'm talking about are much more than you would eat regularly in cooking. But if you were using large quantities and teas or supplements, it could be a good idea to talk about it with your doctor, nutritionist or your pharmacist, especially if you're taking other medications that could have interactions with those herbs or spices.

Where to find herbs & spices, what to look for, & more

Another question that I hear a lot is, should I buy organic spices? Ideally, the answer is yes. Organic spices won't have synthetic pesticides and can reduce the exposure to potentially harmful residues. Organic herbs and spices are often more potent and have pure flavors because they don't have extra fillers or synthetic additives.

If your budget allows, organic herbs and spices will help ensure you're getting a more pure product with less chemical exposure. If you're wanting to make small changes, you could gradually start in by adding organic spices when you run out of one or when you need a new one for a recipe.

Besides looking at the grocery store for herbs and spices, there are a lot of other places to choose from to make sure you're getting good quality ingredients. Co-ops are a great place to get dried herbs and spices because you can get them from the bulk bins and just get what you need. Since spices lose potency over time.

There are also lots of other great options for buying spices online. You want to look for reputable sources that are transparent about the origin or region where the spices come from and where they're harvested. You also want to make sure that there aren't any additional additives. You want to avoid. MSG, artificial colors and fillers.

Another way to get fresh herbs is to grow them yourself. Basil, chives, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, and thyme can be grown on our counter indoors and can ensure you always have fresh herbs available.

It's best to store spices in cool, dark and dry places because spices can be degraded by heat and light. If you really want to get the best flavor from your spices, you can buy whole spices and then grind them yourself. Because whole spices have flavor compounds that are released when they're ground. You can buy a hand grinder or electric grinder, or use a mortar and pestle.

So I hope from today's discussion you've seen the benefits of herbs and spices. They make food more flavorful and give healthy meals a new twist when you add them in. And also add lots of other health benefits. We always think of adding more fruits and vegetables in our diet to make it healthier, but don't forget about the herbs and spices that can pack in a lot of other phytochemicals that can be beneficial alongside those fruits and vegetables.

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of “Ask a Nutritionist”. If you thought this episode is helpful, let us know. Just leave us a review or a rating so we can help even more people discover the connection between what they eat and how they feel.

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