Is Spicy Food Good for Your Health?
Key takeaways:
Different spices contain a compound called capsaicin that may benefit heart health and metabolism and even provide pain relief (when used topically).
The hotter the pepper, the more capsaicin it contains, and benefits can come from eating the peppers raw, cooked, or dried.
Be cautious when eating spicy foods if you have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), since it could cause a flare-up.
What would food be without spices? Different cuisines use a variety of spices, which benefit a dish’s flavor and color and can even preserve it. Hot or fiery spices, like chili pepper, not only make your food taste great, but they also contain compounds that may be beneficial for your health.
Here, we break down the health benefits that spicy foods bring to the table and any negative side effects that you may want to look out for.
What are the benefits of eating spicy food?
The tingly (and, at times, painful) feeling that spicy foods bring to your tongue when you eat them are due to a compound called capsaicin. As we will discuss below, capsaicin's effects go beyond the taste buds — with research showing benefits for heart health, pain relief, metabolism, and more.
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Spicy food and your heart
Keeping your heart healthy ensures that it keeps blood pumping to the rest of the body. High blood pressure and high cholesterol levels can affect cardiovascular (heart and blood vessel) health. And these conditions can eventually lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Many studies have shown capsaicin’s benefits on blood pressure in animals, but there isn’t much evidence for how it affects humans. One small study found that capsaicin increased blood pressure in the short term, but it was inconclusive about long-term effects.
Even though more studies will need to be done in humans to see if capsaicin can help with blood pressure, there is some evidence that it may help with cholesterol.
When it comes to healthy cholesterol, having higher HDL cholesterol levels is beneficial to remove other forms of cholesterol, including LDL (bad) cholesterol, from blood vessels. A small study on capsaicin found that 4 mg of capsaicin taken daily for 3 months significantly increased HDL (good) cholesterol levels. For reference, 1 g of dried jalapeños has an average capsaicin content of 1.12 mg.
Spicy food and your metabolism
Metabolism is the process that turns the food and drinks you consume into energy. The higher your metabolism, the more energy you have and the more calories you burn. With so many health benefits, you may wonder if spicy foods can increase metabolism and help with weight loss. Well, it may be one of the many tools needed to help maintain a healthy weight.
One study found that participants who consumed 2 mg of capsaicin daily burned 130 calories per day compared to the placebo group, who didn’t take any capsaicin and burned only 8 calories.
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Beyond firing up your metabolism, research also links capsaicin with burning fat and increasing the feeling of satiety (fullness), leading people to eat fewer calories throughout the day.
Spicy food and your gut
Your gut consists of trillions of different bacteria and microbes that make up your gut microbiome.
Keeping it balanced and healthy is important and can impact things like your immune system and digestion. Many studies in animals have shown that capsaicin may decrease the “bad” bacteria in the gut while encouraging the growth of all the “good” ones. A small study done in humans found similar findings.
While there is more research that needs to be done to determine the effects of capsaicin on the gut microbiome, we do know that fiber from vegetables improves the gut microbiome. So you can’t go wrong by eating more spicy veggies either way.
Spicy food and pain relief
Believe it or not, applying a topical form of capsaicin is a great way to relieve pain. And research has shown that it can help relieve pain in people with osteoarthritis, diabetes nerve pain, and post-herpetic neuralgia (nerve pain after a shingles infection). Studies show that topical capsaicin products can relieve pain by desensitizing nerves in the skin and lowering substance P, a pain chemical in the body.
You can often find capsaicin products — such as creams, gels, or lotions — over the counter or as a prescription patch. Capsaicin applied to the skin can cause a burning sensation, but this usually resolves after 1 to 2 weeks.
Does it matter what kind of spice?
A scale you may be familiar with called Scoville heat units (SHU) calculates how pungent (or hot) a pepper is. The more SHU a pepper has, the more capsaicin it contains. For example, green, red, and yellow bell peppers are considered non pungent and, therefore, have little to no capsaicin, while peppers like jalapeños and chili peppers are more pungent. Here are some common peppers and their SHU:
Habanero: 100,000 to 350,000
Cayenne: 30,000 to 50,000
Serrano: 6,000 to 23,000
Jalapeño: 2,500 to 5,000
Poblano: 1,000 to 2,000
Whether you enjoy eating peppers raw, cooked, or dried as a spice, you’ll get the benefits of capsaicin.
If you like getting your kick from liquid hot sauces, watch out for added salt that can affect your cardiovascular health. The 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend no more than 2,300 mg of salt per day (about 1 tbsp of table salt).
What are the negative effects of eating spicy food?
Many people can benefit from eating spicy foods, but it isn’t the best option for everyone. People who have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) like Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis (conditions that cause inflammation in the digestive tract) may find that spicy food may trigger a flare-up. While that may not be the case for everyone, a questionnaire given to 400 patients with IBD found that 41% stated that spicy foods caused their symptoms to become worse.
Some people may also find that eating spicy foods can cause side effects such as:
Acid reflux (heartburn)
Diarrhea
Stomach pain
Nausea
Can you eat spicy food while you’re pregnant?
Pregnant people may experience worsening heartburn and morning sickness with spicy foods, but otherwise, consuming them is safe.
As for the theory that eating spicy foods can trigger labor, there isn’t enough evidence to support that claim.
The bottom line
If you enjoy spicy foods, there’s promising research that spices and peppers that contain the compound capsaicin can benefit your health. This includes improving your gut microbiome, possibly lowering your blood pressure, improving good cholesterol levels, and even revving up your metabolism. The hotter the pepper (or spice) you choose, the more capsaicin it will contain.
You may want to avoid or limit spicy foods if you have inflammatory bowel disease or heartburn, since they could make your symptoms worse.
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References
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Spahn, J. M., et al. (2019). Influence of maternal diet on flavor transfer to amniotic fluid and breast milk and children’s responses: a systematic review. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Qin, Y., et al. (2017). Capsaicin supplementation improved risk factors of coronary heart disease in individuals with low HDL-C levels. Nutrients.
Zheng, J., et al. (2017). Dietary capsaicin and its anti-obesity potency: from mechanism to clinical implications. Bioscience Reports.
