Meal Time Medicinal Value

Set up a good herb and spice cabinet and season your food liberally, and you could potentially double or even triple the medicinal value of your meal, because herbs and spices are some of the our most potent antioxidants.

This is especially true if you use spices on food you intend to eat raw, as cooking reduced the spices antioxidant levels by 45 to 70 percent in the above study.

Herbs and spices have very low calorie content, they are relatively inexpensive, and they are a great way to turbo-boost the natural antioxidant and anti inflammatory power of your diet. Not to mention that they taste great!

According to the Journal of Medicinal Foods, the top 10 most potent herbs and spices are:

1. Cloves (ground)
2. Cinnamon (ground)
3. Jamaican allspice (ground)
4. Apple pie spice (mixture)
5. Oregano (ground)
6. Pumpkin pie spice (mixture)
7. Marjoram
8. Sage
9. Thyme
10. Gourmet Italian spice