The Active Ingredient In Hot Sauce Will Be The Answer To A Lot Of Your Health Concerns

by N/A, 10 years ago | 2 min read

If you're like me (hi, author aside happening) you can't possibly imagine eating a meal without adding a little something spicy on top of it all. Now, I'm no smug jerk who sits down at a dinner table and starts dousing things in Sriracha without first tasting it. However, after knowing what the dish tastes like, you can bet that I'm going to ponder what a few (dozen) drops of hot sauce might add to the flavor palate and then proceed in dousing. Well, that habit ain't so bad, so says science.

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An active ingredient in hot peppers known as capsaicin is highly beneficial to your overall health if it's a regular addition into your dietary regime.

Capsaicin has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and cancer-fighting properties which means ordering a pile of chicken wings coated in the hottest of hotness and sharing them with nobody is actually not rude at all, rather it's doctor recommended. In fact, TIME reported that:

"…those who who ate spicy foods three or more times a week had a 14% reduced risk of death, compared to those who didn’t eat much spicy food."

Furthermore, those who ate spicy foods three to seven times a week have shown to "have a reduced risk of dying from cancer, heart disease, and respiratory disease by 14%."

This information comes from a paper earlier this year looking at the dietary regime of half a million Chinese adults. We all know Chinese food is no stranger to bringing the heat (see Sriracha photo above), so we can trust that the sample size and results are very believable.

Essentially, you have no reason not to add a dribble of hot sauce to all your dishes according to David Popovich, an expert on peppers and a senior lecturer at Massey University in New Zealand, who puts it "on everything."

Capsaicin is a fat-soluble molecule, meaning you can absorb more when it's eaten with fat. So, again, chowing down on a platter of wings is actually easily digested by your body (thanks to the hot sauce).

TIME goes on to say, "the more fiery the pepper, the greater its capsaicin content." It doesn't necessarily mean that the hotter peppers are the healthier ones, but it all depends on an interaction of different compounds when cooking, pulverizing and mixing of hot sauces.

Blending, cutting and cooking all play a part in how much of the capsaicin ingredient is released. So, if you can handle the heat, hot sauce really should become a regular part of your diet.

Popovich has even proven that capsaicin literally makes cancer cells "commit suicide" when the ingredient is added atop the cells in his research. He explains:

"That’s one of the ways scientists think capsaicin and other active compounds in vegetables can prevent cancer development: by stimulating apoptotic cell death."

There you have it: hot sauce can potentially help prevent cancer cell growth and helps you digest food easier. Eat more and fight cancer all from a few drops of fiery yumminess.