Spices and herbs: improving health through flavour

Spices and herbs can play a significant role in improving health, by helping to reduce sodium, kilojoule and fat intake while making healthy eating more appealing, conclude the authors of a scientific supplement published in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrition Today.

The publication, entitled Spices and Herbs: Improving Public Health Through Flavorful Eating, is based on the conference proceedings of a Science Summit convened by the McCormick Science Institute in partnership with the American Society for Nutrition in May 2014. The goal of the summit was to bring together academia, health professionals, chefs, government, and the food industry to examine the state of the science on spices and herbs, and to cultivate a dialogue on how flavourful eating can offer potential solutions to improve America's health.

The journal features papers that explore the latest research on spices and herbs, including studies that point to the positive impact of spices and herbs on diet quality, as well as other studies that suggest certain spices and herbs may have beneficial effects on satiety, energy metabolism, inflammation, insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk factors.

"We now understand that spices and herbs have a meaningful role to play in bringing flavour to the forefront of today's health and wellness conversations," said Johanna Dwyer, DSc, RD, professor of medicine and community health at Tufts University School of Medicine and editor of Nutrition Today. "It will take all of us working together - from scientists to chefs and product developers to policy makers - before we can really begin to improve public health through flavourful eating."

The full collection of papers is available on the Nutrition Today website.