Eating spicy foods 6-7 times a day makes you live longer, as is proven by a major study published in The BMJ. 

This alone is a good enough reason to flavor your meals with various spices. However, there are many other benefits of spicy foods for your health, weight loss, and lifestyle. Turmeric and chili peppers are the leaders in providing a great positive boost to your body.
 

Benefits of Spicy Foods That Make You Healthier and Happier

1. Turmeric helps with cancer treatment and prevention
The recent shocking story of a woman who has beaten cancer with turmeric published in Daily Mail is but one more proof of how incredible this spice is. Its antioxidant and cancer-fighting properties are so impressive, there’s talk about creating a specialized medication based on the essence of turmeric that will target tumor cells. This kind of cure is not available yet, but scientists have already started to work on it.

Turmeric isn’t the only spice fighting this most awful of diseases. Capsaicin (active element in chili pepper) showed the ability to fight prostate cancer in some animal laboratory trials.

2. Chili peppers help you lose weight
Have you ever noticed that cultures where spicy foods are a staple (India, Mexico, etc.) have a lower rate of obesity? Their ample use of spices is one of the reasons as they speed up the metabolism naturally. The result is that consuming such foods makes your body burn off fat cells faster, and you don’t even have to do any extra-work.

Capsaicin is one of the most efficient elements with this effect. That’s why it’s often added to natural weight loss pills. And a low-fat chili is often included into weight loss diet plans.

Other benefits of spicy foods for weight management include reducing appetite and food cravings. Both of these indirectly reduce the amount of calories you consume.

3. Both Turmeric and Chili make your heart stronger
Cardiovascular heart disease remains one of the leading causes of death in the world. So, doing your best to protect from it is a must for everyone. Chili peppers help its prevention through strengthening blood vessels and fighting hypertension, as has been proven by numerous studies. Turmeric provides a heart health boost due to its antioxidant power that fights plaque formation in blood vessels and its anti-inflammatory effect.

4. Capsaicin helps with chronic pain relief
While the effect is mild, it’s a widely-recognized fact that a diet that includes at least one meal spiced with hot red pepper a day reduces the number of attacks in chronic pain sufferers. Topical treatments with this element also help those who suffer acute localized pains caused by inflammation. For example, a capsaicin cream can help manage arthritis joint pains.

Benefits of Spicy Foods: Final Thoughts
The positive effects of spicy foods on health cannot be ignored. However, you shouldn’t take it as an incentive to eat a spoonful of chili with every meal. The best way to get the maximum benefits of turmeric and chili is to consume one spiced up meal every day. Note that black pepper doesn’t contain capsaicin, the element responsible for the health-boosting effect of these spices.