12 Spices That Boost Your Immune System & Fight Infection | Kanchan Koya | Be Well Moments

0:00Welcome to Live Well Be Well, a show to help high performers improve their health and well-being.

0:10You've just touched upon the immune system there with star anise, which I found really interesting. And I think that's probably one of the most common things that many of our listeners might turn to spices. They might turn to chillies if they're getting a cold, or they might turn again to star anise, as you just said, if they're getting a cold. what are some compounds of spices that could really help with our immune system? Because one of our listeners, David wrote in and said, can very spicy food, put very in brackets, have an effect on the immune system. So I thought actually, it's really maybe a good one to kind of tie this all in together.

0:45You know, are there any specific spices that we should be thinking about to help, you know, the preventative aspects of a strong immune system? Yeah, I love that question because it goes back to kind of where we started with inflammation. So, you know, what we want is balanced inflammation. We want inflammation in the right place at the right time. If we are infected with a virus or a bacteria and we need to mount an inflammatory response, an immune response, we want our inflammatory processes to work well. When we have chronic low-grade inflammation, we actually don't mount a robust immune response.

1:22They're not actually the same thing. So chronic low-grade inflammation, something that in the literature we call SCI or systemic chronic inflammation, actually can interrupt our body's ability to mount that robust immune response when we're getting sick. So going back to some of these anti-inflammatory spices like ginger, like turmeric, like chili, even cumin can allow our bodies to then have a more balanced inflammatory state so we can mount that robust acute inflammatory response when we're getting sick. So you'll see people taking ginger turmeric shots with lemon. I mean, I think that's all fine.

2:02You know, I don't know that we have robust evidence to suggest that like a ginger turmeric shot necessarily shortens a cold, but I think it can help with some symptoms. The compounds you were asking about, ginger has a really interesting compound called gingerol, which is great for balanced inflammation, helps to mount a robust immune response, and might also have some antimicrobial properties. So, you know, incorporating these things in whether it's a soup to bring you some symptom relief or a tea, or if you really want to suffer a little bit, a concentrated shot, go ahead and try. But I would say a wide variety of these inflammation balancing spices.

2:42And we can put a link in the show notes, if you like, to the study that looked at this blend. So people can go and look at it. It's quite a few spices. Make yourself a delicious brothy soup with a bunch of vegetables and add some shaved ginger, fresh turmeric, some cumin, coriander, some herbs. and you've got yourself something that's going to make you feel better now in terms of your symptoms and also give you that balanced inflammatory response that you need when you're getting sick. Your food pharmacy. I love it. I'm like scribbling down. I'd love for you to send us that study or we can find the study and we can put it into the show notes.

3:16Because I do think, you know, I don't think many people do think about this and maybe it's just my opinion, but I don't think many people think about a spice blend. And I always remember now, this might not relate to our American audience but it definitely relates to our UK audience um Michael McIntyre who was a comedian um I always remember this one very famous line that he did in one of his shows where he was talking about a spice straw and the one that's always gets left behind in the spice straw is allspice like no one ever uses allspice and it's just kind of left there in the drawer and now I'm thinking I always used to laugh at that because even myself who loves to cook I'd never use allspice but actually I guess that's a spice blend so now it's all coming back around and that's what we should be using actually allspice is not a spice blend I know it's confusing because it's allspice it's actually a spice from the Caribbean and it's like a round spice that's dry and it's one spice called allspice and I agree that it's left behind in the drawer because people don't know what to do with it.

4:22But it has a lot of great polyphenols and antioxidants. So yeah, but great examples of a spice blend would be, you know, if you just go to some of, like if you go to my culinary heritage in India, we have something called garam masala. We put that in a chickpea stew. You can put it in your favorite chicken curry. A tandoori chicken has tandoori spice blend. You have a lot of spice blends in the Middle East as well, like a shawarma blend has multiple spices, cinnamon, cumin. So there are blends. I think a great place to start would be to go to like your favorite, you know, favorite cuisine, if it's Indian or Middle Eastern and pick up a blend from there and start with that.

5:02And then once you get really pro, you can make your own blend. One billion people worldwide are deficient in this nutrient that so many of you guys might not be aware of. And women, if you're listening, you are more at risk of being deficient in this nutrient. So I'm going to first of all explain what the physical symptoms are. If you have cold hands and feet, pale skin, extreme lack of energy or fatigue, then you might be suffering with iron deficiency or anemia. Now first off, please go to your GP to get your iron levels checked. Secondly, please explore a good iron supplement. Many people that come to me are worried about taking iron supplementation because it can cause constipation or GI distress.

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6:30Um, I'm just thinking about that. One of my favorite ways to use, um, what you just mentioned is to pop on chickpeas, graham masala, and also I put some sumac on there and a little bit of chili, a little bit of like smoked paprika, olive oil, salt and pepper, and I roast them. And it is so delicious. One as a snack, but also to add into a salad to give it a bit more of a crunch. Yeah, like a crouton. Like a crouton, exactly. But like a healthy version of a crouton. You know, you're getting all your spices, you're getting all your spices, which also I love, count as one of your five a day. You're also getting another one of your five a day from the legume, which is the chickpea.

7:07So we were like really scoring here on diversity and PowerPoint. And as I'm, as you're talking about this, sorry, I am, my mouth is salivating. And I'm sure many of our listeners are. And I think that's what's really exciting about this conversation is, yes, here's all the signs, but also it's just making me feel quite joyful about food. So it brings me to a question of what is your favorite dish? What's your favorite spice dish? Oh, gosh. Um, hard to choose, but I will say it is actually kind of a chickpea stew, but it's one that I concocted. I took a bunch of flavors from all my favorite cuisines.

7:43So it's kind of like a chana masala. So it has like the same spices as a chana masala, like cumin, coriander, turmeric, chili. It incorporates some tomato and coconut milk from a stew that I love in Brazil called mochaika. And then it also has sumac because I think sumac is a super underutilized spice. It's like when you sprinkle lime or lemon on a dish, it's the same thing. You put on sumac, it's dry lime, dry lemon, not technically, but has the same flavor, packed with antioxidants, packed with anthocyanins, so easy to use even for a spice beginner. Take your favorite hummus, your avocado toast, your favorite salad, and sprinkle some sumac on.

8:23And so it's like this kind of chickpea curry with coconut and tomato and sumac and all the spices. And I throw in some dandelion greens, um, just for like added veg and a little bit of that bitterness. And I could eat that every day. Wowza. That is what I'm going to cook this weekend. That is delicious. And I also really agree. We haven't mentioned it, but I am obsessed with sumac and it one does, it just tastes delicious. It's got like a real twang to it, but also it looks great. So when you sprinkle it on the hummus it does just give it that bit bit of extra vibrancy which also looks quite nice when you're like laying a table for guests to come around it looks like you kind of even if you even if you haven't made the hummus yourself you can pretend by putting a bit of olive oil on sumac and pretend that you made it and look and you know i'm going to challenge listeners because i know people feel intimidated about how to start with spices so say you're having a dinner party and you have your salt and pepper on the table so guests can put a little bit of fresh pepper, add a little cute little bowl of sumac with a little spoon or even let guests use their hands if it's that kind of party.

9:25And people are going to say, what is that? And you're like, just like pepper, you would put some black pepper on whatever your pasta, you can sprinkle sumac on your salad or your soup. It's like a squeeze of lemon or lime. And I think we just need to make these more accessible. When you're making any habit change, you want to make it easy, fun accessible and kind of the default choice so bring the spices from the back of your cupboard to the front of your cupboard put them on your table entertain with them and you'll before you know it you'll be adding more of their magic to your food every day I love that I do that with chili and paprika I have them on my next to my we're in like very cute little bowls and I put them on there so I'm just constantly adding as you can tell I obviously like spicy food adding them always when I'm cooking and just having them out and open in a bowl is actually a really great way a bit like how you would with salt sometimes have that out and cook with it as well so I think that's a fantastic tip for so many listeners similar to what I say when people aren't hydrating enough if you always have a bottle of water next to you you're visually going to have more because you're having an IQ to tell you to drink water because you can see it so it's so similar with spices so that is a fantastic fantastic tip and Sarah can I just add one thing, which is I know that you love, your listeners love science.

10:45There's some really interesting observational studies that have looked at chili consumption and all cause mortality. So people who tend to eat more chili peppers seem to have lower all cause mortality and greater health span. And of course it's confounded by the fact that they could be doing other things, although studies control, try to control for that, but that's my justification for putting chilies on everything. So I thought I'd share that. I love that. And just in case no one knows what all, you know, mortality is basically people aren't dying. People are living longer and healthier. I love that.

11:16I love chili. And also, I'm sorry for anyone who doesn't love chili, because it could be a genetic variant as well. Because I think Tim Spector twin studies showed that actually there is a genetic factor that if you like chilies. So if you don't, I'm sorry, it could be down to your genes. But we have a tip for that, though. We always have the tip is Give me a tip. Yes. If you don't like the hot peppers, you can use paprika. It's in the chili family and it tends to be sweet. And then there's smoked paprika, which you mentioned. So you're not going to get exactly capsaicin, but you're going to get like a cousin, which is a compound that is a cousin that has very similar effects on the gut microbiome and antioxidant status.

11:58So if you don't like heat, we don't judge you. Just embrace paprika. We don't judge you, but you won't like coming to my house for dinner. because it's always very spicy. But that, I mean, there's such a wealth of evidence there, and I really hope, and I know I feel very inspired to even go out now and explore a bit more with herbs. I want to say one of my favorite herbs is za 'atar and spices, which I absolutely love. And that's what I always sprinkle on daka and za 'atar, kind of on any salad. So if you guys haven't heard of that, that would be my recommendation to go and pop into your supermarket basket to add to your culinary experience.

12:36But I think what's amazing about this conversation is it's just getting people cooking because I really feel like we're losing the love for it. And I believe it's such an amazing thing to do for people that you love and also a self-love for yourself. Don't wait to do this for other people. Be compassionate towards yourself and think, what can I go and do just for me this week? What is the one dish that I could cook with spices that my body deserves? thanks so much for listening to hear the full episode there's a link in the description