Hot sauce enchances health and flavour
ST. JOHN'S, NFLD. (CUP) - Spicy food is a lot like sex - it makes you sweaty, it's good for you, but if you're not careful it can lead to a painful burning later. Ignore the tough-guy mystique around buffalo wings and five-alarm chili: The active chemical that burns your throat can help lower cholesterol, decrease your blood pressure and make breathing easier.
Cyril Butler is a big supporter of healthy hot sauce in Newfoundland. He's the owner/operator of The Spice Rack, a distributor specializing in salsas, dry spices, sauces and snack foods with an extra kick.
"Not all of them are spicy, either," he says. "I have different cooking spices and stuff like that, that aren't hot."
But it's really the spicy ones with special health benefits. Capsaicin, the compound in hot peppers that produces the heat, can boost metabolism, which helps burn fat faster. The spice raises your heart rate, so that circulation improves.
It also helps with pain relief, especially headaches - even excruciating migraine and cluster headaches.
"[It] can clear nasal and sinus congestion, which I experience myself quite frequently," says Butler. "It's also being researched for uses in cancer treatment."
People often fret about the effect so much spicy food will have on their stomach, possibly causing ulcers and heartburn. But Butler says there's nothing to worry about.
"One misconception about hot foods is that it causes stomach problems," he says. "Usually . . . a lot of the spicy foods that we have here are pasta [with] tomato sauces and some [foods] are high in grease content and fat content, which can cause heartburn itself."
Butler says capsaicin is actually good for digestion and ulcer-prevention. Most stomach ulcers are caused by H. Pylori, bacteria that the hot compound kills.
Written by Devon Wells, Canadian University Press
Cyril Butler is a big supporter of healthy hot sauce in Newfoundland. He's the owner/operator of The Spice Rack, a distributor specializing in salsas, dry spices, sauces and snack foods with an extra kick.
"Not all of them are spicy, either," he says. "I have different cooking spices and stuff like that, that aren't hot."
But it's really the spicy ones with special health benefits. Capsaicin, the compound in hot peppers that produces the heat, can boost metabolism, which helps burn fat faster. The spice raises your heart rate, so that circulation improves.
It also helps with pain relief, especially headaches - even excruciating migraine and cluster headaches.
"[It] can clear nasal and sinus congestion, which I experience myself quite frequently," says Butler. "It's also being researched for uses in cancer treatment."
People often fret about the effect so much spicy food will have on their stomach, possibly causing ulcers and heartburn. But Butler says there's nothing to worry about.
"One misconception about hot foods is that it causes stomach problems," he says. "Usually . . . a lot of the spicy foods that we have here are pasta [with] tomato sauces and some [foods] are high in grease content and fat content, which can cause heartburn itself."
Butler says capsaicin is actually good for digestion and ulcer-prevention. Most stomach ulcers are caused by H. Pylori, bacteria that the hot compound kills.
Written by Devon Wells, Canadian University Press
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