A spoonful of pepper makes the… Hang on, no, that’s not right…

We know that spices are the spice of life, and many have great health-giving qualities. But…

1. How much is the right amount?
2. What’s the minimum to get health benefits?
3. What’s the maximum to avoid toxicity?

That last one always seems like a scary question, but please bear in mind: everything is toxic at a certain dose. Oxygen, water, you-name-it.

On the other hand, many things have a toxicity so low that one could not physically consume it sufficiently faster than the body eliminates it, to get a toxic build-up.

Consider, for example, the €50 banknote that was nearly withdrawn from circulation because one of the dyes used in it was found to be toxic. However, the note remained in circulation after scientists patiently explained that a person would have to eat many thousands of them to get a lethal dose.

So, let’s address these questions in reverse order:

What’s the maximum to avoid toxicity?

In the case of the spices we’ll look at today, the human body generally* has high tolerance for them if eaten at levels that we find comfortable eating.

*IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have (or may have) a medical condition that may be triggered by spices, go easier on them (or if appropriate, abstain completely) after you learn about that.

Check with your own physician if unsure, because not only are we not doctors, we’re specifically not your doctors, and cannot offer personalized health advice.

We’re going to be talking in averages and generalizations here. Caveat consumator.

For most people, unless you are taking the spice in such quantities that you are folding space and seeing the future, or eating them as the main constituents of your meal rather than an embellishment, you should be fine. Please don’t enter a chilli-eating contest and sue us.

What is the minimum to get health benefits and how much should we eat?

The science of physiology generally involves continuous rather than discrete data, so there’s not so much a hard threshold, as a point at which the benefits become significant. The usefulness of most nutrients we consume, be they macro- or micro-, will tend to have a bell curve.

In other words, a tiny amount won’t do much, the right amount will have a good result, and usefulness will tail off after that point. To that end, we’re going to look at the “sweet spot” of peaking on the graph.

Also note: the clinical dose is the dose of the compound, not the amount of the food that one will need to eat to get that dose. For example, food x containing compound y will not usually contain that compound at 100% rate and nothing else. We mention this so that you’re not surprised when we say “the recommended dose is 5mg of compound, so take a teaspoon of this spice”, for example.

Further note: we only have so much room here, so we’re going to list only the top benefits, and not delve into the science of them. You can see the related main features for more details, though!

The “big 5” health-giving spices, with their relevant active compound:

• Black pepper (piperine)
• Hot pepper* (capsaicin)
• Garlic (allicin)
• Ginger (gingerol)
• Turmeric (curcumin**)

*Cayenne pepper is very high in capsaicin; chilli peppers are also great

**not the same thing as cumin, which is a completely different plant. Cumin does have some health benefits of its own, but not in the same league as the spices above, and there’s only so much we have room to cover today.

Black pepper

• Benefits: antioxidant, anti-cancer, boosts bioavailability of other nutrients, aids digestion
• Dosage: 5–20mg for benefits
• Suggestion: ½ teaspoon of black pepper is sufficient for benefits. However, this writer’s kitchen dictum in this case is “if you can’t see the black pepper in/on the food, add more”—but that’s more about taste!
• Related main feature: Black Pepper’s Anti-Cancer Arsenal (And More)

Hot Pepper

• Benefits: anti-inflammatory, metabolism accelerator
• Dosage: 6mg gives benefits, 500mg is a common dose in capsules
• Suggestion: if not making a spicy dish, consider using a teaspoon of cayenne as part of the seasoning for rice or potatoes
• Related main feature: Capsaicin For Weight Loss And Against Inflammation

Garlic

• Benefits: heart health, blood sugar balancing, anti-cancer
• Dosage: 4–8µg for benefits
• Suggestion: 1–2 cloves daily is generally good. However, cooking reduces allicin content (and so does oxidation after cutting/crushing), so you may want to adjust accordingly if doing those things.
• Related main feature: The Many Health Benefits Of Garlic

Ginger

• Benefits: anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-nausea
• Dosage: 3–4g for benefits
• Suggestion: 1 teaspoon grated raw ginger or ½ a teaspoon powdered ginger, can be used in baking or as part of the seasoning for a stir-fry
• Related main feature: Ginger Does A Lot More Than You Think

Turmeric

• Benefits: anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer
• Dosage: 500–2000mg for benefits
• Suggestion: ¼ teaspoon per day is sufficient for benefits; ½ teaspoon dropped into the water when cooking rice will infuse the rice with turmeric (which is very water-soluble), turn the rice a pretty golden color, and not affect the flavor. Throw in some black pepper as it increases the bioavailability of curcumin up to 2000%
• Related main feature: Why Curcumin (Turmeric) Is Worth Its Weight In Gold

Closing notes

The above five spices are very healthful for most people. Personal physiology can and will vary, so if in doubt, a) check with your doctor b) start at lowest doses and establish your tolerance (or lack thereof).

Enjoy, and stay well!

We’ll file this one under “life hacks” as we will address reducing them too!

First though, what are they? Also called liver spots, they’re yellow-brown (depending on intensity) marks in the skin that typically come with age.

You may be wondering: is it about liver health? And the answer is: no

In fact they have nothing to do with liver function, except insofar as a diseased liver will promote metabolic problems in general more rapid aging, but that is systemic, and is no more reasonably considerable a matter of liver function than graying hair or arthritis.

Liver health is very important for many things, though so do also check out: How To Unfatty A Fatty Liver

As for “liver spots”, however, the name comes from color, and that once upon a time it was popularly believed that they were connected, but there is no scientific basis to that.

What, then, does cause them?

As our cells age, they start bringing forward mistakes that accumulate over time, like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy.

One common mistake is to bring forward senescent fibroblasts, whose non-senescent versions are supposed to be there, but whose senescent editions contain more melanin than average (as in, average for your normal skintone) which consequently also gets brought forward and with no reason to disappear, also accumulates over time.

You may be wondering: is this related to cancer? And the answer is: yes and no

More helpfully: it’s a somewhat similar process, but benign (in contrast to cancer cells that would be similar, but multiply rapidly as they divide without any programmed cell death).

However, since they can look a lot like skin cancer, that also means that they can mask skin cancer. For this reason, get it checked if what you have assumed to be an age spot…

• turns black
• turns multicolored
• gets bigger
• bleeds (for a reason other than: you just stabbed it with something)

Any one (or more) of those happening is cause for concern. Note, we say cause for concern, not cause for panic; it will quite possibly be fine, but it also might not be, so book yourself a doctor visit about it.

Learn more: We don’t all need regular skin cancer screening–but you can know your risk and check yourself

The other major factor besides simply “how many times your cells have been copied” is sun exposure, because UV radiation not only can cause cellular mutations in the long-run, but also cues our skin to speed up melanin production (it’s trying to save us by giving us darker skin*).

*Note: dark skin is moderately protective against sun damage (and resultant cancer risk) initially, but this is a double-edged sword, so please do still wear sunscreen even if you have naturally dark skin! Darker-skinned people who do get skin cancer have higher mortality rates than people with lighter skin (even if the same race/ethnicity and just lighter- or darker-skinned)—at least in part because it will then spread more aggressively. Simply put: dark skin will stop a lot of skin cancers from starting, but the cancers that do get past that initial hurdle are, on average, much worse.

How, then, to reduce them?

In advance:

• Wear sunscreen, and consider doing so even if it’s not very sunny; see: Do We Need Sunscreen In Winter, Really? ← the answer here isn’t a simple yes/no, so do read the article, as there is nuance that can help you decide when it’s worth it and when it’s not
• Kill your senescent cells at the earliest opportunity. That might sound drastic, but here be science: Fisetin: The Anti-Aging Assassin
• And as an encore: The Drug & Supplement Combo That Reverses Aging ← this is about dasatinib and quercetin, or else fisetin alone, and explores some very related science

After they show up:

• The same things as above; they will slow any exacerbation, and killing senescent cells does work retroactively too, per that (justified) “reverses aging” claim.
• Normal anti-aging skincare: here we’re talking things like: Undo The Sun’s Damage To Your Skin
• Laser treatment: or an at-home IPL device which is not technically laser but works on the same principles; it breaks up the pigment and allows your immune system to eat the resultant parts. However, this is only suitable for small, moderate pigmented spots, and only on skin that is notably lighter than it (or else it’ll superheat the natural pigmentation there, too, which means much more heat will be absorbed, creating a burn risk)

There are also harsher clinical options like cryotherapy (freezing it off) or chemical peels (corrosively removing the affected skin), and… Well, we’re not the boss of you, but we would encourage you to consider whether that’s really worth it for something that’s not harmful in itself, and will probably be a losing battle in the long run—since, if we be so fortunate as to live many more years, we’ll accumulate more as we go no matter how careful we are.

Want to tackle things the tastiest way?

Check out:

The Diet That Slows Skin Aging

Enjoy!