The spices in your kitchen are a treasure trove. They don’t just add flavor and colour to your food, but also have numerous health benefits. In part one of our article on spices, we mentioned how spices like turmeric, fenugreek seeds, and cinnamon can help in weight loss. In this article, we will discuss health benefits of few other spices.
Nigella Seeds
Nigella seeds, commonly known as kalonji, is an ayurvedic spice that has several health benefits. It helps in aiding weight loss too.
•Helps in curing constipation and aids digestion: Kalonji is a rich source of fibre. Adding kalonji to your diet helps in achieving satiety to your taste buds for a longer duration.
•Antioxidant properties: Kalonji contains nigellone, an antioxidant enzyme, which helps in controlling obesity, and thus, also inhibits the symptoms that can lead to cancer.
•In weight loss: Health experts recommend kalonji oil for those who want to use kalonji to reduce weight.
•Other benefits: It helps in treating asthma and cures burns. Apart from these, applying kalonji seeds on your hair along with olive oil and henna helps remove dandruff.
One must not take more than 8-10 kalonji seeds in a day. Health experts do not recommend kalonji seeds for pregnant and lactating women. This is because its constituents can produce intense heat in the body (if used in excess), which can result in abortion.
Cumin Seeds
Jeera or cumin seeds, the miraculous Indian spice is an exotic addition to several dishes; be it dal or a vegetable. It also has numerous health benefits. Cumin or Jeera is considered a source of weight loss. It is packed with compounds that can accelerate your fat burning process to shed kilos.
•Great antioxidant: Cumin seeds are packed with antioxidants and can help remove harmful free oxygen radicals from the body. They are also a good source of vitamins A, C, copper, and manganese.
•Anti-inflammatory agent: Constant state of inflammation can give way to inflammation-induced obesity. Drinking jeera water concoction can help prevent that by acting as an anti-inflammatory agent.
•Improves digestion: This spice has enzymes which help to break down sugars, fats, and carbohydrates in the body, and keeps the gut healthy.
•Detoxifies your body: Jeera water also detoxifies (removes all the toxins) in your body and increases metabolism.
Coriander Seeds
Coriander seeds have great nutritional value. It has good anti-diabetic properties and promotes insulin growth. It is known for its medicinal properties, and is used for curing allergies, eye infections, anaemia etc. This bright green herb is also considered as a powerhouse of a variety of minerals and vitamins including potassium, iron, magnesium, calcium, folic acid, and Vitamins A, K, and C.
•Improves Digestion: It helps in reducing bloating, gastric issues, diarrhea, nausea etc, the all in one solution for almost all digestion related issues. It also helps in improving digestive hormones mechanism, thus stimulating better liver function. Enriched with fiber and several antioxidants, it acts like a potent ingredient in managing constipation.
•Lowers Cholesterol: Coriander seeds help in reducing bad cholesterol and promote growth of good cholesterol in the body. Being a rich source of copper, zinc, iron and other essential minerals, it helps in increasing RBC and improves heart health.
•Treats Diabetes: They are a good source of antioxidants and other essential vitamins, that helps in regulating your blood sugar level in the body. Try drinking an easy coriander infused tea in the morning to regulate your blood glucose level.
•For Weight Loss: It helps in weight loss by boosting up your metabolism, and reducing the inflammation caused by obesity. These seeds also help in shedding excess water weight, in a healthy and natural way.
(Bipasha Das is a certified health coach and nutritionist. She runs a diet and wellness clinic ‘Sugati’. She has been awarded Most Recommended Nutritionist of the Year 2018-19 by Brands Impact. She has worked with top hospitals, and is a life member of the Indian Dietetic Association and on the panels of renowned corporate houses like Ericsson, GE Power. Bipasha is working with Municipal Corporation of Delhi - Public Health Department (South Zone) as a consultant, and creating awareness programmes on Women and Children Health, Health for Public Health Workers, Office Sedentary Workers etc.
*Answers are based on general queries. Please contact a professional for any personal treatment.)
