Could consuming an extra few grams of herbs and spices every day improve blood pressure, inflammation, and gut bacteria? A new review of controlled studies suggests these everyday ingredients may offer more than just flavor.
Research: Effects of spices and herbs on cardiac metabolism and the microbiome. Image credit: BT1976 / Shutterstock
In a recent supplementary article published in a magazine nutrition reviewsreview authors summarized evidence from several previously published controlled studies that investigated how regular intake of culinary spices and herbs affects cardiometabolic risk markers, blood pressure, and gut microbiota in adults at cardiometabolic risk.
background
Despite advances in medicine and public health, cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Dietary patterns high in saturated fat, sugar, and processed foods can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and chronic inflammation, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Many common culinary ingredients, such as cinnamon, turmeric, garlic, oregano, and ginger, contain natural bioactive compounds that have been shown to provide antioxidant properties and reduce inflammation.
The review authors noted that scientists are increasingly studying whether these everyday ingredients can naturally improve heart and metabolic health. Further research is needed to determine the most effective combinations and doses for long-term cardiovascular risk reduction.
Evidence from postprandial spice research
The review authors first summarized previous research that investigated how spices and herbs affect the body immediately after eating a high-fat meal, which is known to temporarily increase inflammation, triglycerides, and oxidative stress. In a previously published postprandial study, overweight participants consumed a meal containing black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, garlic powder, ginger, oregano, paprika, rosemary, and turmeric. Postprandial insulin levels (21%) and triglycerides (31%) were significantly reduced when compared to the control diet. Additionally, the diet was found to increase antioxidant activity in the blood.
Another previous study investigated whether psychological stress alters these protective effects. Participants consumed high-fat meals with or without spices and completed stressful tasks such as public speaking and mental arithmetic. Spice mix reduced postprandial triglyceride levels at rest, but this effect disappeared under stress. Laboratory analysis has shown that certain spices inhibit lipase and phospholipase A2, enzymes that play a role in fat digestion. However, stress appears to interfere with these positive metabolic responses, highlighting how emotional stress can affect digestive and cardiovascular health.
Evidence from low-dose culinary spice trials
The review then described a pilot study to test whether small amounts of culinary spices and herbs can have measurable effects. Participants were given a spice-free meal, a 2-gram spice blend, and a 6-gram spice blend. Meals containing 6 grams significantly reduced the decline in blood flow-mediated dilation, a measure of vascular function that can be exacerbated after high-saturated fat, high-carbohydrate meals.
Another major area of research is inflammation, as chronic low-grade inflammation can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. In a related postprandial analysis, the researchers assessed the levels of inflammation-related markers in participants’ blood samples after eating a meal containing spices. A diet containing 6 grams of spice significantly reduced the release of selected inflammatory cytokines (eg, interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-8, tumor necrosis factor alpha) from LPS-stimulated immune cells. These results suggest that incorporating herbs and spices into your daily diet may reduce the inflammatory effects of unhealthy foods.
Evidence from a 4-week controlled nutrition trial
The review authors also summarized subsequent feeding management trials that investigated whether these benefits persist with long-term intake in adults at high risk of cardiometabolic disease. Each participant consumed an average American diet over four weeks consisting of lightly, moderately, or heavily seasoned foods (highly seasoned was defined as 6.6 grams of seasoning per day on a 2,100 calorie diet). Blood pressure, cholesterol levels, inflammatory markers, glucose metabolism, and vascular function were measured.
The most important finding was that the high-spice diet lowered 24-hour systolic blood pressure compared with the medium-spice diet and lowered 24-hour diastolic blood pressure compared with the low-spice diet. Interestingly, in-office blood pressure measurements did not change significantly, suggesting that continuous outpatient monitoring may better capture subtle cardiovascular improvements. These findings showed that adding herbs and spices to your daily diet may be a simple way to support cardiometabolic health without significantly changing your diet.
Secondary and exploratory discoveries about immune function, phytochemicals, and gut microbiota
This review also features secondary and exploratory analyzes of how spices and herbs affect immune function. A moderately spicy diet was observed to reduce interleukin-6 levels in plasma and LPS-stimulated immune cell culture supernatants, which are associated with cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. In their study, the first researchers noted that high levels of spice consumption altered the behavior of monocytes, the white blood cells responsible for forming plaques in arteries. These results suggest that spices may reduce cardiovascular risk by calming immune system activity and limiting inflammatory damage to arteries.
The review authors further discussed the analysis of phytochemical metabolites in blood samples. Spices and herbs contain a variety of phytochemicals such as flavonoids, terpenoids, and phenolic acids. More than 90 metabolites were observed when spices such as black pepper, rosemary, garlic, cinnamon, and ginger were consumed regularly. These metabolites may help explain some of the observed cardiometabolic effects, but further analysis is required to directly link them to outcomes such as blood pressure and endothelial function.
Another important finding summarized in the review concerned the gut microbiome. Adults consuming a spicy diet had higher abundances of Ruminococcaceae and Agatobacter, bacterial groups often associated with beneficial metabolic functions. Produces short-chain fatty acids that support intestinal health. Because bacteria in the gut influence inflammation, metabolism, and immune function, these findings suggest that culinary spices and herbs may modulate gut bacterial composition in potentially beneficial ways, although direct clinical gut health effects require further research.
conclusion
The findings reviewed in this article indicate that culinary spices and herbs may improve several important markers of cardiovascular and metabolic health. Acute dietary studies showed improvements in postprandial triglycerides, insulin, antioxidant measures, inflammatory responses, and endothelial function, while 4-week feeding trials showed improvements in ambulatory blood pressure and selected immune and microbiome markers.
The reviewed evidence also suggested that spices produce phytochemical metabolites that may affect immune system activity and benefit cardiac metabolism.
These discoveries are important because spices and herbs are cheap, easily available, and easy to add to your daily diet. The authors noted that this research was funded in part by the McCormick Institute for Science, and related advisory relationships were also disclosed.
The researchers concluded that long-term studies in diverse populations are still needed to identify optimal spice combinations and therapeutic doses.
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Reference magazines:
- Chancellor Chris Etherton, Rogers, C.J., Oh, ES, West, S.G., Sandhu, A.K., Barton-Freeman, B., Huang, Y., Proctor, D.N., and Petersen, K.A. (2026). Effects of spices and herbs on cardiac metabolism and the microbiome. Nutrition review. 84 (supplement_1). 70-75. Doi: 10.1093/nutrit/nuaf267 https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article/84/Supplement_1/70/8692889
