Herbs and Spices May Be Good for Your
Health
From VOA Learning English, this is Science in the News. I’m Faith Lapidus.
And I’m Mario Ritter. Today we tell about herbs and spices, and some of their many uses.
People have been using herbs and spices for thousands of years. Generally, herbs come from the
green leaves of plants or vegetables. Spices come from other parts of plants and trees.
Some herbs and spices are valued for their taste. They help to sharpen the taste of many foods.
Others are chosen for their smell. Still others were used traditionally for health reasons.
When people think of improving their diet, they often talk
about eating more fruits and vegetables. Others want to
eat more fish and less red meat, in addition to reducing
the amount of food they eat. But, they can improve their
diets even more with just a simple addition.
American researchers have found that a diet rich in
spices can help reduce the harmful effects of eating high
fat meals. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University
reported the findings.
Penn State Associate Professor Sheila West led an
investigation of the health effects of a spice-rich diet. Her team knew that a high-fat meal produces
high levels of triglycerides, a kind of fat, in the blood.
She said, “If this happens too frequently, or if triglyceride levels are raised too much, your risk of heart
disease is increased. We found that adding spices to a high-fat meal reduced triglyceride response
by about 30 percent, compared to a similar meal with no spices added.”
As part of the study, her team prepared meals on two separate days for six men between the ages of
30 and 65. The men were overweight, but healthy.
The researchers added about 30 milliliters of spices to each serving of the test meal, which included
chicken curry, Italian herb bread and a cinnamon biscuit. The meal for the control group was the
same, but it did not include any spices.