This amazing and powerful spice is also known by the name
Cuminum Cyminum. This spice has a peppery taste that can add a warm, nutty
flavor to your food and it’s a staple in Indian, Mexican and North African
dishes. People use this spice all around the world, for centuries.
The aromatic
spice cumin originates from Egypt, and it’s a key component in curry powder and
some chili powder. This super healthy and powerful spice is very good for
spicing your favorite meals, but did you know that you can also use it to burn
off a few extra pounds.
A recent study, published in the Complementary Therapies in
Clinical Practice journal, has examined and tested the effects of this powerful
spice on overweight women. The researchers randomly split 88 overweight or
obese women into 2 groups. For 3 months, both groups received nutrition
counseling and decreased their daily intake of calories by 500. But one group
was also eating 3 grams (a little less than 1 teaspoon) of cumin powder daily,
swirled into 5 ounces of yogurt (the same amount of yogurt, minus the cumin,
was also prescribed to the control group).
And after 3 months, the women eating cumin in their yogurt
lost an average 50% more weight than the women eating plain yogurt. More
impressively, the cumin group members decreased body fat percentage by
14.4%—almost three times more that the control group—apparently due to the
addition of the fat-burning spice.
Well, the cumin group had some other improvements as well.
They had decreased levels of harmful blood fats – the triglycerides dropped 23
points. The participants in the cumin group had an average of nearly 10 points
off their bad (LDL) cholesterol reading. The control group had only 1 point in
that category. Well, this reveals that the cumin eaters burn more calories by
adding this super healthy spice into their diets. And the best thing about it
is that this spice also positively affects their health by reducing the risk of
heart disease and obesity. The medical experts also claim that this spice can
boost the metabolism as well, because it contains high amounts of phytosterols,
which can inhibit the absorption of cholesterol in the human body.
Cumin – Health Benefits
As we said, this powerful spice can provide many health
benefits. It’s great for digestion problems, because it contains essential
oils, magnesium, sodium. These compounds promote digestion and can provide
relief for stomach aches. People use this spice to fight and treat many health
problems such as: insomnia, respiratory disorders, anemia and even skin
disorders. Cumin is loaded with iron, Vitamin C (which promotes a healthy
immune system and keeps infections from forming or becoming worse). A more
recent study has found that cumin can be used to enhance memory function, and
that it also has many other anti-microbial functions. You can ground it or you
can use whole seeds. But, we highly recommend to grind the seeds into a powder.
These are the best ways to incorporate this powerful spice into your healthy
diet:
- You should add cumin when you’re making your favorite soups, stews, chili, rice, beans or lentils, etc.
- This amazing and super-healthy spice goes well with sweet potatoes, carrots, squash and cauliflower.
- You can add cumin to marinades, salad dressings and mayonnaise.
- Just sprinkle some cumin on roasted nuts or chickpeas.
- You should add some cumin to a meat mixture when making meatloaf, meatballs or hamburgers.
- Sprinkle some into your scrambled eggs before cooking.
- Buy cumin seed tea, or brew your own! Simply boil the seeds and let them steep for 10 minutes. Enjoy your homemade cumin tea.
As you can see, this powerful spice has many different
health properties and it can provide many health benefits. With all of these
health benefits, cumin is a great staple to add to your diet. Check out the
video below for more ideas on how to cook with cumin. We really hope you
enjoyed this article and don’t forget to share it with your friends and family.
Thank You.