The Trick That Makes Spices More Than 100x More Anti-Inflammatory

If you’re a regular 10almonds reader, you’ll know that many spices have potent anti-inflammatory benefits (as well as other benefits beyond the scope of today’s article), and you may even remember our top picks:

Our Top 5 Spices: How Much Is Enough For Benefits? ← which also links to separate main features for each of the 5 spices, respectively

You might even know the trick of “enjoy some black pepper with your turmeric to increase the bioavailability”.

But, it can get a lot better than just that!

Variety is the spice of spice

Here at 10almonds, we’re often encouraging readers to enjoy a wide variety of plants, as diversity really does make a huge difference.

We even did a main feature about it: What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?

There are many reasons, and the main one discussed there is for the benefit of gut health, which in turn affects all other aspects of health.

So, what about spices in that regard?

Well, in the matter of spices and gut health specifically, we’ve written about that too: Spicy Foods & Your Gut

It gets more exciting though! Researchers (Dr. Gen-Ichiro Arimura et al.) tested whether combining plant compounds produces stronger anti-inflammatory effects than using them alone (like the good old “black pepper with turmeric” trick).

The compounds in question included menthol (mint), 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus), capsaicin (chili peppers), and β-eudesmol (found in hops and ginger), using immune cells exposed to a bacterial trigger to simulate inflammation.

What they found is that while capsaicin alone was the most potent single compound, combining it with menthol or cineole boosted anti-inflammatory effects by up to 699x and 154x more, respectively

❝We demonstrated that this synergistic effect is not a coincidence, but is based on a novel mode of action resulting from the simultaneous activation of different intracellular signaling pathways❞

~ Dr. Gen-Ichiro Arimura

How the signaling synergy works: menthol and cineole act through TRP channel–driven calcium signaling, while capsaicin works through a separate pathway, creating a multi-pathway “stacking” effect inside cells.

In other words: this supports the idea that plant-rich diets work at their best through compound interactions rather than isolated “superfoods” (however good they may genuinely be even when used alone).

You can read the paper in full, here: Functional Phytochemicals Cooperatively Suppress Inflammation

This is, of course, very consistent with our own article: How to Prevent (or Reduce) Inflammation

…and the more diet-specific: Anti-Inflammatory Diet 101 (What to Eat to Fight Inflammation)

Want to learn more?

You might like this excellent book we reviewed a while back:

Healing Spices – by Dr. Bharat Aggarwal & Debora Yost

Enjoy!