A simple way to leverage the health- and fitness-promoting compounds present in herbs and spices.
There are many methods of enhancing your health and fitness. Some are time consuming protocols and others are simple strategies you can easily incorporate into your usual routine.
The following strategy is one that you probably do already, but by being more conscious of it you may get even more health- and fitness-enhancing benefits.
The boring and bland meals often associated with certain fitness pursuits (eg. the bodybuilder’s chicken and rice seasoned with salt and pepper) are neglecting some key ingredients that would make the pursuit all the more effective while simultaneously being advantageous for one’s health.
Simply add more herbs and spices to your meals!
Aside from the obvious benefit of making your meals more palatable and flavoursome, herbs and spices have a wide range of beneficial properties that will assist your health and fitness pursuits.
In a previous blog post (Good Health and Improved Exercise Recovery: The Power Of Polyphenols), I discussed how beneficial polyphenol-rich foods are. Herbs and spices are a rich source (one of the highest) of polyphenols, which are responsible for a lot of their benefits. They also contain a range of other compounds (phytochemicals) that contribute.
This results in a food group that has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-microbial, anti-viral, anti-fungal, immune modulating, anticancer effects (and more, but you get the idea). This can hep protect you against a wide range of diseases and illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammation, cancer, obesity, brain degeneration diseases and so on. (1)
Aside from the obvious benefit of how being healthy and free of disease/illness helps your fitness pursuits, there are also compounds present in various herbs and spices that may be able to help directly with your results and exercise performance.
Capsaicin is a compound found in the spicy foods you consume (like various chillis and cayenne pepper) – the ‘hotter’ it is, the more capsaicin is present!
Capsiate is similar in its structure and effect but is the ‘non-pungent’ version (eg. consuming capsicum).
Capsaicin has been found to be beneficial for pain issues, GI injuries, overweight individuals (can increase fat oxidation with a very large dose), applied topically for skin disorders and osteoarthritis, anti-cancer activity and even helping to regulate your immune responses (2) (3) (4).
When it comes to your exercise performance, capsaicin and capsiate have the following performance-enhancing effects!
Capsaicin/capsiate can activate a certain kind of receptor that results in an improved ability for muscle contractions, a reduction in pain perception and greater blood flow to your working muscles (3)
A meta-analysis concluded that 12 mg of capsaicin ingested 45 minutes before workout was able to improve muscular endurance (ability to perform more work and perceive it to require less exertion). This was most likely due to its capacity to reduce pain perception and therefore help with the discomfort during training. (3)
As we want to be able to perform as much work as possible, it could be very useful.
The other interesting point is that these results were compared with what you would see with other well known performance enhancing compounds like caffeine (see Coffee, good or bad for health and fitness?), sodium bicarbonate and dietary nitrates (see Try These Prior To Exercise For Improved Performance) – being compared with these is some high praise for its performance-enhancing effects!
Another example of a spice that is often used in cooking and has impressive health- and fitness-enhancing properties is fenugreek seeds.
Fenugreek is also associated with many health benefits, being used for diabetics, women’s/men's health and having anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, immune modulating and anti-bacterial/fungal effects. (5)
When it comes to the strength-training benefits, a fenugreek seed extract can have a positive effect on total testosterone levels (6). This is important because testosterone is related to your body composition, muscle mass and strength (not to mention its role in your mood in energy levels)!
How does this look when applied to a group of healthy and recreationally active men? A study by Hausenblas et al., (2020) investigated this and found that the groups supplementing with a fenugreek seed extract had an improvement in the following:
• Ageing male symptoms (sexual desire, libido, frequency etc.)
• Anxiety
• Health-related quality of life (sleep quality, energy, perceived health)
• Increase in grip strength (associated with longevity/overall health)
(7)
To gain some of the medicinal benefits I’ve mentioned, you probably do need the specific extracts at the right dosages, so there may be a time and place!
*Even though the supplements I include in my blog posts are considered safe, I always recommend working with a professional before incorporating new supplements as they may have interactions with other things you’re taking.
• What I’m hoping to communicate: Many of these common herbs and spices contain these various compounds that have impressive health and fitness-enhancing effects when leveraged. So, since it’s such a simple behaviour to include more, it can be very advantageous.
• How should you consume them if not from supplements? As I love to preach, getting these compounds in their original whole forms (incorporating more of the herb/spice throughout your meals) is a great way to include them. It keeps things simple, saves you money and you get a wide range of all of the beneficial components present in the food rather than just the one.
• Another thing to note: When a lot of these extracts are created, they have to be packaged with other compounds that make it easier for your body to absorb and use (such as curcumin (many health benefits) from turmeric that has carriers and antioxidants added). The advantage of including the whole herb/spice within your meals is that many of the compounds that make it easier for your body to absorb and use the active ingredient are simply found in the whole foods you’re consuming!
The more simple health- and fitness-enhancing behaviours you can easily implement into your routine the better (it all helps). Adding more herbs and spices throughout your meals is one of these. Thanks to the different beneficial compounds they contain, they can have positive effects on your health and may also improve your exercise performance and the results you attain! Capsaicin/capsiate found in chillis and fenugreek seeds are just two examples of the many you could be including.
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