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Why you should stay away from spicy food?
Are you eating too much spicy food? Can it affect your general well-being and health? Here are the answers you were looking for.
Spices are an integral part of the Indian diet. But, how much is too much? Can spices affect your general health and diet too?
Dr Anup Dhir, Senior Consultant and Cosmetic Surgeon at Apollo Hospital says, “The thought of spicy food is so appealing to most of us that it causes us to salivate. Especially in Indian food culture, spices are an important ingredient. Some spices can be good for us but adding too many spices in the food can also be detrimental to our health.”
The tolerance for spices varies from person to person. While some can handle more amounts of spicy food, others tend to feel sick after consuming spices. Spices contain capsaicin, which can irritate the lining of the stomach or intestines and it may also have a laxative effect during digestion.
Eating spicy food also increases your tendency to poop and can even lead to a burning sensation. When TRPV1 detects high temperatures – like from capsaicin – it signals to your brain to stimulate pain. The receptors are not only located in the mouth but scattered all around the body, including the gastrointestinal system. Since the gastrointestinal system is cramped up and activated more than needed, it makes you want to go to the loo and even leads to loose motions.
Did you know spicy food can even cause heartburn and reflux? Dhir adds, “It exacerbates the symptoms of irritable bowel and this can affect one's general health. Diarrhoea is another symptom caused by excessive spices in the diet. Some reports also say it can cause throat and oesophagus cancer but there is no clear evidence of this.”
Moreover, cooking with a lot of spices also involves more oil and this can also affect health and therefore the skin.
“All these gastrointestinal symptoms lead to general illness and therefore, affect the health of your skin,” Dhir says, adding, “This is because our skin is our body's mirror and it reflects our general health and well-being. So keeping the stomach and gut healthy is a way of maintaining radiant skin. Spicy food can also cause acne and other skin rashes.”
Like all other ingredients, it is essential to keep spices at a nominal level and control the intake whenever possible.
