The Surprising Reason We Eat Spicy Food

Check out Nourish from PBS! https://www.youtube.com/PBSNourish SUBSCRIBE to It s Okay To Be Smart! ►► http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub ↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓ People who live near the equator use more spices per recipe than people who live far from the equator. But that isn t for the reason you think. Spices and other plant ingredients have special powers that make them a truly magical superfood! REFERENCES: Billing, J., & Sherman, P. W. (1998). Antimicrobial functions of spices: why some like it hot. The Quarterly review of biology, 73(1), 3-49. Juneja, V. K., Dwivedi, H. P., & Yan, X. (2012). Novel natural food antimicrobials. Annual review of food science and technology, 3, 381-403. Sherman, P. W., & Billing, J. (1999). Darwinian gastronomy: why we use spices: spices taste good because they are good for us. BioScience, 49(6), 453-463. Li, Z., Henning, S. M., Zhang, Y., Zerlin, A., Li, L., Gao, K., ... & Heber, D. (2010). Antioxidant-rich spice added to hamburger meat during cooking results in reduced meat, plasma, and urine malondialdehyde concentrations–. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 91(5), 1180-1184. ----------- FOLLOW US: Twitter: @DrJoeHanson @okaytobesmart Instagram: @DrJoeHanson Merch: https://store.dftba.com/collections/its-okay-to-be-smart Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmart SEND US STUFF: It’s Okay To Be Smart PO Box 303356 Austin, TX 78703 USA BOOKS WE’VE FEATURED: http://smart-books.tumblr.com/ ----------- It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D. Director: Joe Nicolosi Writer: Sarah Keartes Creative Director: David Schulte Editor/animator: Derek Borsheim Producers: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox Produced by PBS Digital Studios Music via APM Stock images from Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com