The Surprising Reason We Eat Spicy Food

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People who live near the equator use more spices per recipe than people who live far from the equator. But that isn't for the reason you think. Spices and other plant ingredients have special powers that make them a truly magical superfood!

REFERENCES:

Billing, J., & Sherman, P. W. (1998). Antimicrobial functions of spices: why some like it hot. The Quarterly review of biology, 73(1), 3-49.

Juneja, V. K., Dwivedi, H. P., & Yan, X. (2012). Novel natural food antimicrobials. Annual review of food science and technology, 3, 381-403.

Sherman, P. W., & Billing, J. (1999). Darwinian gastronomy: why we use spices: spices taste good because they are good for us. BioScience, 49(6), 453-463.

Li, Z., Henning, S. M., Zhang, Y., Zerlin, A., Li, L., Gao, K., ... & Heber, D. (2010). Antioxidant-rich spice added to hamburger meat during cooking results in reduced meat, plasma, and urine malondialdehyde concentrations–. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 91(5), 1180-1184.

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It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
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