Research
A source of effective, low-calorie, inexpensive, and even taste-enhancing medications could be right in your kitchen.
Researchers include (L-R) Phillip Greenspan (Associate Professor, Pharmacy), Ruthann Swanson (Associate Professor, Foods and Nutrition), Diane Hartle (Associate Professor, Pharmacy) and James Hargrove (Associate Professor, Foods and Nutrition).
AFACS study, involving the health benefits of herbs and spices, has been a shot heard around the world.
Published in June 2008 by the Journal of Medicinal Food, within days the highly practical work of James Hargrove, associate professor of foods and nutrition, and his research team was mentioned in newspapers and on websites ranging from the Dallas Morning News to the Times of India. He has also been interviewed for a future story in Reader’s Digest.
He was especially pleased that the study was reported on the website of health and wellness guru Dr. Andrew Weil, whose evidence-based approach Hargrove has admired for decades.
“It makes you feel good to know that your work is being seen by the public, as opposed to its usual languishing in an academic journal that will be read by 20 or 30 colleagues,” he says. “When I told my coauthor Rebecca Dearlove about Dr. Weil mentioning our work, she exclaimed, ‘I’ve got to find someone to brag to about this.’”
In addition to Dearlove, a former master’s student who is now at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, Hargrove’s coauthors on the study included Diane Hartle and Phillip Greenspan, associate professors in the UGA College of Pharmacy, and Ruthann Swanson, associate professor of foods and nutrition.
In testing extracts of 24 common herbs and spices, the team found that they have high concentrations of antioxidant-rich phenols, which possess the ability to block the formation of compounds that contribute to the inflammation and tissue damage caused by diabetes and aging.
When blood-sugar levels are high, Hargrove explains, “protein glycation” occurs. This is a process in which the sugar bonds with proteins to eventually produce “advanced glycation end products”—the compounds (noted above) that, true to their acronym of AGE, inflict wear and tear on the body.
In particular, the formation of AGE increases the risk of cardiovascular damage associated with diabetes and aging, Hartle says. High blood-sugar levels accelerate heart disease partly because AGE compounds form in the blood and in the walls of blood vessels. This condition aggravates atherosclerosis, the buildup of cholesterol plaques.
The spices the researchers tested had varying levels of potency. Cloves and cinnamon had phenol levels that were 30 percent and 18 percent of dry weight, respectively, while herbs such as oregano and sage were 8 and 6 percent. For comparison, note that blueberries, which are widely touted for their antioxidant strength, contain roughly 5-percent phenol by dry weight.
Hartle notes that because various phenols are absorbed differently by the body and have diverse mechanisms of action, it’s likely that a variety of spices will provide maximum benefit.
“If you set up a good herb and spice cabinet and season your food liberally, you could double or even triple the medicinal value of your meal,” she says. And Hargrove points out that herbs and spices have a very low calorie content and are relatively inexpensive as well.
The UGA researchers tested for the ability to block AGE compounds in a test tube, but animal studies conducted on the health benefits of spices lend support to their results.
Cinnamon, for example, has been shown to lower blood sugar in mice—an effect it achieves in several ways, according to Hargrove. Cinnamon slows the emptying of the stomach (thereby reducing sharp rises in blood sugar following meals), improves the effectiveness of insulin, and enhances antioxidant defenses.
He also observes that because humans have been consuming herbs and spices for thousands of years, they are time-tested products that come without the risks of side effects that accompany medications. “Indeed, some spices and herbals are now sold as food supplements because of their recognized health benefits,” Hargrove says.
So rather than seasoning their food with salt, which provides no beneficial phenols and has been linked to high blood pressure, Greenspan recommends that people use a variety of herbs and spices to help boost the quality of their meals.
“When you add herbs and spices to food,” he says, “you definitely provide yourself with additional benefits besides taste.”
In this way, individuals can help to maintain their health with inexpensive items that are readily available at grocery stores— an approach that appears to resonate with the public, according to Swanson.
“I think in general that consumers are trying to take more control of their health,” she says, “and this is certainly a hands-on way to do that.”
