For most people, hot sauce is nothing more than a condiment, and the last thing that we’re thinking of when munching on scorching-hot food is the benefits of the sauce to our health. But you’d be surprised how incredibly healthy hot sauce really is! So why is hot sauce good for you, and what health benefits you’ll enjoy by adding spicy sauce to everything? Let’s dive right in:
What Makes Hot Sauce Healthy
Hot sauce owes its health benefits to capsaicin, the active ingredient of chili peppers. This chemical is an antioxidant that protects healthy cells from destructive free radicals. Free radicals cause oxidative stress, which leads to a mutation in healthy cells. Most scientists believe that oxidative stress is the precursor to cancers and cardiovascular diseases.
Studies show that capsaicin has potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Researchers concluded that people who eat spicy foods at least three times a week decrease their risk of death by 14% compared to those who didn't eat much spicy food.
The 5 Health Benefits of Hot Sauce
Minimizes the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to produce enough insulin to process the glucose in the body. When you're living with type 2 diabetes, the glucose from the food you eat stays in the blood instead of being burned as energy. Although type 2 diabetes is milder than type 1 diabetes, it still leads to significant health complications like obesity, heart diseases, and vascular diseases.
The capsaicin in the hot sauce helps regulate the insulin level in the blood. A study found regular consumption of capsaicin leads to normal insulin levels. People who eat capsaicin-laden food regularly have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Prevents Obesity
If you want to maintain a healthy weight, we highly suggest slathering hot sauce all over your food! People who consume hot sauce regularly can maintain a healthy body weight because it reduces the level of ghrelin in the body. Ghrelin is a hormone that triggers hunger.
Hot sauce helps reduce feelings of hunger by triggering the release of GLP-1 in the bloodstream. GLP-1 is a type of appetite-suppressing hormone that prevents you from overeating! The capsaicin in the hot sauce also boosts the metabolic rate. This helps the body burn more calories, which also keeps your body weight in check.
Researchers at Purdue University concluded that people who ate spicy foods feel more satiated than those who ate non-spicy dishes. Also, those who ate spicy foods are less likely to indulge in fatty foods.
Packed with Antioxidants
Apart from capsaicin, chili peppers are loaded with vitamins A, C, and E. The vitamin A and C in chili peppers act as antioxidants that protect healthy cells from free radical damage. Free radicals are caused by unstable ions that destroy healthy cells and cause cell mutation. That's the reason why most health experts encourage the consumption of foods that are high in antioxidants to promote better health.
Foods that are high in vitamin A, C, and E protect from diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Apart from antioxidants, chili sauce is also a great source of folate, magnesium, and potassium, nutrients that promote better health.
Reduces Inflammation
Did you know that hot sauce minimizes your risk of inflammation? Internal inflammation leads to all sorts of ailments ranging from arthritis to asthma and serious diseases like diabetes, cancer, and mental disorders. The good news is, there are loads of food that are teeming with natural anti-inflammatory nutrients, like hot sauce!
Hot sauce laden with capsaicin is known to reduce internal inflammation. It's so good at soothing inflammation that it gives temporary relief from sprains, muscle strains, even migraine headaches, and rheumatoid arthritis!
Effective Decongestant
Got a cold? A bowl of chicken soup helps alleviate clogged nose, but if you’re a complete chili nut, nothing clears the sinuses quite like red chili peppers. Super spicy dishes do more than tease the tastebuds; the heat makes an effective decongestant! The anti-inflammatory properties of chili peppers reduce nasal inflammation while the peppers’ high vitamin C content shortens the duration of common colds.
If you take chicken soup when you have the sniffles, try adding a dash of hot sauce to the soup. The hot soup + the spicy chili peppers should make your cold more manageable. Most hot sauces have subtle flavors, so they won’t alter the soup’s taste -- not that you can taste the soup anyway with your clogged nose.
If you’re a glutton for punishment, you can also use grated chili peppers as a sub for hot sauce. Add the grated chili to your chicken soup, and you’ll sweat the fever away in no time at all.
Chili peppers aren’t just used to add heat to your favorite dishes. Even in ancient times, chili peppers were used to treat a variety of health problems. A dash of hot sauce certainly won’t hurt when you’re down with the flu! And eating chili peppers helps you love longer because it protects from serious diseases; that’s a win-win situation in our book!
What’s your favorite hot sauce brand? Hopefully it is Very Muy Rico! But if you have any recommendations for us? Let us know in the comments section!