1718 Spicy Medicine

I read an interesting couple of articles on health the other day. And how to keep healthy with what you eat. Turns out the spicier you eat your food, the more healthy you're likely to be.
At Penn State University, researchers fixed two identical high-fat meals for volunteers. With one of the meals they added a couple of tablespoons of spices, which included rosemary, oregano, cinnamon, cloves, garlic powder, paprika and turmeric.
I love turmeric--anything that includes a root word like turmer has got to be good.
As you can see from all those spices, they essentially turned one of the meals into curry. The results were interesting. While high-fat foods normally increase blood levels of insulin and triglycerides, and increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses, this particular spice concoction actually reduced triglyceride levels by 31% and insulin by 21%.
In another medical research effort, a new Harvard study showed that eating just one serving of red meat per day can dramatically increase your risk of premature death.
(Is any death not premature by the way?)
Researchers tracked over 120,000 people over more than 20 years. Those who consumed at least a 3-ounce portion of daily red meat were 13% more likely to die during that period.
People who substituted poultry or grains reduced their risk by 14%. Those substituting nuts reduced risk by 19%.
Unless, of course, they had a nut allergy.
Too bad Harvard and Penn State don't communicate better. I think the solution is obvious. Forget about substituting nuts. Get a 31% reduction by adding spices.
So they can say, "Some Turmeric a day keeps the doctor away."
Or, "A spoonful of turmeric helps the risk or premature death go down..."
America ya gotta love it.