Cayenne peppers are highly esteemed medicinal herbs. For thousands of years, these peppers have been used as treatments for various health conditions. Along with having medicinal properties, they are also used for cooking purposes and contain valuable nutrients.
If you’re curious about the possible cayenne pepper benefits, corresponding risks, and how to use them, read on!
14 Cayenne Pepper Benefits for Weight Loss and Health
1. Boost Your Metabolism
Cayenne peppers contain capsaicin which has metabolism-boosting abilities. It makes you burn more calories by increasing the heat production in your body.
Diet-induced thermogenesis causes an increase in metabolism that lasts 30 minutes after consumption (source).
However, if you regularly consume cayenne pepper, its effects will gradually wear off as your body adjusts to it.
2. Detox Your Body
Cayenne peppers function as a detoxifier and cleanse your body by flushing the toxins out of your system.
Its medicinal properties help to stimulate circulation in the body and promote elimination, making it an ideal detoxifier.
A popular detoxing drink you can try uses a dash of cayenne pepper with lemon juice, maple syrup, and tonic water.
3. Reduce Hunger
People who are not used to eating cayenne peppers might burn more calories and curb their appetite when they eat those. They can burn more calories too if they consume food along with the pepper.
In the same way, it will decrease their appetite, especially if they’re not already eating spicy food on a regular basis (source).
4. Manage Weight
Cayenne pepper is one of the best natural ingredients to manage weight. It helps to melt fat by stimulating metabolic rate, at the same time it suppresses the appetite. Capsaicin causes spiciness in food and aids weight loss.
5. Support Digestive Health
Dietary spices and their active components stimulate some nerves in your stomach to boost its defense against infections, to increase the production of digestive fluid as well as deliver necessary enzymes to aid digestion.
Cayenne pepper also benefits your stomach by sending signals to stimulate gastric mucous secretions to help protect and reduce the risk of stomach ulcers (source).
6. High in Antioxidants
The antioxidants that cayenne pepper consists of are beta carotene, Vitamin C, cryptoxanthin (containing vitamin A), and many more.
These help the body by removing free radicals and toxic materials that are harmful. In addition, they protect us from diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease (Source).
7. Improve Skin Issues
Cayenne pepper is actually amazing for both major and minor blemishes on your skin. It can enhance the texture and glow of your skin by increasing blood flow, bringing several necessary nutrients along with oxygen.
It can be used to treat acne, poison ivy, and psoriasis.
8. Lower Blood Pressure
An easy and quick natural remedy for lowering blood pressure is to add cayenne peppers in your meals, take cayenne capsules, or drink cayenne tonics.
Cayenne pepper is a natural vasodilator, which has the ability to improve blood flow and lower blood pressure.
You can see that the cultures where cayenne peppers are often consumed have a lower case of heart stroke.
9. Relieve Pain
Like other spicy peppers, cayenne peppers have capsaicin, which produces heat. When applied directly to the skin, it reduces the pain by reducing the amount of pain signal sent to the brain.
A neuropeptide, also known as a P substance, alerts the brain about the pain. When the level of this P substance decreases, the pain decreases as well (source).
10. Prevent Blood Clots
Researches reveal that consuming cayenne pepper increases blood circulation and boosts blood vessel strength. Capsaicin, a key active compound of this pepper, promotes blood flow by lowering blood pressure.
It also stimulates the release of vasodilators, compounds helping to expand blood vessels, to allow blood to flow more smoothly (source).
11. Improve Psoriasis
Psoriasis is an example of an autoimmune disease where your body attacks itself. It makes your skin itchy, scaly, and you get some patches of redness too.
While there is no cure for psoriasis yet, but capsaicin creams can help to reduce the itching and improve the skin of affected areas (source).
12. Fight Cold and Flu
You can now kick your cold with cayenne pepper. Capsaicin is a great decongestant that can ease the symptoms of your cold. Drinking cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and honey with hot water can help you with your cold and flu.
13. Reduce Cancer Risk
Cancer is caused due to uncontrolled cell growth. The capsaicin in cayenne peppers reduces the risk of cancer by attacking the cancer cell growth in different pathways.
Some study shows that it can slow down the growth and even kill certain skin, pancreatic cancer cells. Capsaicin’s impact on cancer cells tend to be quite promising, but it hasn’t been tried on any human body yet (source).
14. Lower Cholesterol
When you think about cayenne’s cardiovascular health benefits, circulation might be the first thing to pop in your head. This pepper can reduce total cholesterol, LDL “bad” cholesterol while increasing HDL “good” cholesterol.
Since obesity is a risk factor for heart disease, cayenne pepper prevents it by causing weight loss. Furthermore, it provides potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, which keeps the cardiovascular system in a healthy state (source).
Potential Risks and Side Effects
Even though cayenne peppers are considered safe to consume, still consuming them in large quantities can make you sick. Moreover, you should also consult your doctor if you are under medication for high blood pressure, as trying capsaicin cream at that time might cause coughing (source).
Similarly, eating this spice while taking a blood thinner might increase your bleeding; so, it’s always better to check with your doctor and be aware of the risks beforehand.
How to Use Cayenne Pepper?
You can use fresh and ground cayenne peppers in multiple ways:
- Sprinkle cayenne pepper powder into your coffees or hot chocolate for an extra kick
- Add pepper powder into your teas like this fat blocking Ginger Turmeric Tea
- Drop a few sprinkles of cayenne pepper to soups or stews
- Put a dash of fresh pepper into egg dishes like egg salad, scrambled eggs
- Sprinkle them over sautéed vegetables
- Add some in your lemonade to enhance its flavor
Cayenne peppers have great health benefits. By adding cayenne peppers to your diet, you can satisfy both your palate and your health. However, it’s best to consult a doctor before you do so if you’re undergoing any other treatments.
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