Spices - Healthy Food Additives

Until just over a century ago most spices were considered a
luxury in those countries that were unable to grow them,
while in their countries of origin even the poorest people
used them to enhance their meals.

Why, we might reasonably
ask, with the development of economical, long-distance
transport have societies that traditionally use few spices
not increased their intake of these delicious foods? The
obvious answer is that we like best what we are used to.

As most of us have learned by experience, spices are
delicious when used as seasonings, but few of them are
considered much of a delicacy when consumed on their own -
which was generally the form in which these foods were
eaten by our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

To most of us, even
the thought of eating a ginger root, cinnamon bark, or
chewing on a clove is thoroughly unpleasant; but for our
ancestors this would not have been much of a hardship.

As
they were forced to eat them out of necessity, our
forebears probably came to enjoy the intense flavour
experience that many of these spicy plants provided.

The major factor underlying the difference in tastes
between modern and ancient societies and between different
cultures today can be attributed simply to conditioning;
when one is exposed to a food at a young age or for long
enough later on in life, one is more likely to acquire a
liking for it.

Many of us will have experienced this effect
ourselves when, typically as adults, we initially find a
novel taste or flavour unpleasant. After subsequent
exposure to the same food we begin to find the taste
inoffensive and maybe even delicious.

However this does not fully explain the failure of the west
to use more spices in processed and home cooking now that
they have become cheap and readily available all over the
world.

One reason is that salt, which has for hundreds of
years been an important feature of western diets, is often
considered to be enough of a flavor-enhancer. Sugar, too,
has become one of the cheapest most ubiquitous flavorants
and is added to almost all processed foods. From a very
young age our palates have become accustomed to foods that
have high salt and sugar content that tends to inhibit the
appreciation of other flavours.

Another very important factor is the extensive use by the
food industry of artificial-flavors and colorings that
became available in the west over the last century.

Synthetic flavorings and colorings dramatically enhance the
taste and visual appeal of foods, in much the same way that
spices have done for thousands of years. They also have the
added advantage of being extremely cheap, and have been
adopted with alacrity by the manufacturers of the processed
food that now constitutes such a large part of our diets.

Today synthetic food additives are ubiquitous and feature
on the labels of almost all packaged foods. They have no
health benefits (and are probably harmful) and it is
unfortunate that they have prevented the wider acceptance
of their natural, health-promoting counterparts that have
become affordable - if not quite as inexpensive as
synthetic alternatives - and widely available all over the
world.

The dearth of spices in the diets of those of us living in
most Western countries means that we are depriving
ourselves of the important spice-derived compounds that
have, since time immemorial, provided us with an umbrella
of protection against many diseases.

Now that we are beginning to understand just how valuable
they are to our health and well-being we no longer have an
excuse for not regularly eating cinnamon (with its
anti-diabetic effects), basil (with its anti-viral action),
turmeric (with its powerful anti-cancer and
anti-Alzheimer's disease effects), rosemary (with its
cardioprotective action) and the scores of other spices
that have these and many other disease preventing
properties.

We need to consume a variety of spices on a daily basis as
these beneficial food flavorings can make us feel better,
think better, age more slowly and help us to resist the
onslaught of scourges like cardiovascular disease, cancer,
diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and other chronic
degenerative disorders.

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Dr Keith Scott is a medical doctor with a special interest
in nutrition. He has written several books including the
ground breaking, "Medicinal Seasonings, The Healing Power
of Spices" and "Natural Home Pharmacy".
Download a free pdf copy of "Medicinal Seasonings" and find
out more about the important research that shows how
important spices are for our health at:
http://www.medspice.com