I have answered similar questions about "spicy" food and digestive problems on other newsgroups, so I decided to copy and paste my response to one such question below:
My first response:
QUOTE: Most likely, the "spicy" food you are eating is made with a highly
unsaturated (probably highly polyunsaturated) oil. Try making a curry
dish with coconut oil and no other fat source, for example, and see if
you still have the problem. If you want to use some kind of "meat" in
the dish, try a curry shrimp recipe, which I'm sure you can find on the
internet. However, do not fry anything. Boil the shrimp or use it
from a canned source. Make your sauce, then put the shrimp in, and
just warm it up so it is hot enough to taste, then put it over hot rice
or pasta. I think that will solve the problem, but if not, keep doing
it, but eliminate the various items to see if any one is giving you a
problem. Otherwise, you will never know. UNQUOTE.
After this person posted again, concerned about "saturated fat," I responded with the following:
QUOTE: Yes, you are correct, in that if you classify lard as a "saturated
fat," as almost everyone does, you will be doing yourself harm, which
is why I specifically said coconut oil. Lard is about 39% saturated,
whereas coconut oil is 92% saturated. Coconut oil is very
biochemically stable, whereas lard is not, and in fact lard is used in
tests for the anitoxidant potentials of various herbs and spices. If
you knew only this much, you would know that the oil used is likely the
culprit. You could not use fresh coconut oil for these tests (such as
Rancimat) because it is so resistant to lipid peroxidation. I switched
over to a vegan diet low in fat in the mid 1980s because I had so many
gastrointestinal problems on a "typical American diet," but whenever I
went to a Greek or Indian restauranrt and ate something greasy and
spicy, I had the same problems, even though I used the same spices when
I cooked my own food (with hardly any fat used - and no oils used at
all).
Here is an example of the kind of evidence I referred to above (note
that they used lard):
Food Chem Toxicol. 1996 May;34(5):449-56.
An evaluation of the antioxidant and antiviral action of extracts of
rosemary and Provencal herbs.Aruoma OI, Spencer JP, Rossi R, Aeschbach
R, Khan A, Mahmood N, Munoz A, Murcia A, Butler J, Halliwell B.
Pharmacology Group, University of London King's College, UK.
Extracts of herbs and spices are increasingly of interest in the food
industry because they retard oxidative degradation of lipids. There is
also increasing interest in the antiviral activity of plant products. A
liquid, deodorized rosemary extract and an oily extract of a mixture of
Provencal herbs were tested for antioxidant and antiviral action in
vitro. The rosemary extract (Herbor 025) and the extract of Provencal
herbs (Spice Cocktail) inhibited peroxidation of phospholipid liposomes
with 50% inhibition concentration values of 0.0009% (v/v) and 0.0035%
(v/v), respectively. Herbor 025 and the spice cocktail (at 0.2%, v/v)
reacted with trichloromethylperoxyl radical with calculated rates of
2.7 x 10(4) s-1 and 1.5 x 10(3) s-1, respectively. The main active
components in the herbal preparations, carnosol and carnosic acid, at
0.05% (v/v) react with rate constants of (1-3) x 10(6) M-1 sec-1 and
2.7 x 10(7) M-1 sec-1, respectively. Both extracts show good
antioxidant activity in the Rancimat test, especially in lard. Herbor
025 and the spice cocktail inhibited human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
infection at very low concentrations which were also cytotoxic.
However, purified carnosol exhibited definite anti-HIV activity at a
concentration (8 microM) which was not cytotoxic. Both preparations
promoted some DNA damage in the copper-phenanthroline and the
bleomycin-iron systems. The two herbal preparations possess antioxidant
properties that may make them useful in the food matrix.
In another experiment, they used refined olive oil for the test, which
is why I tell people to eat olives rather than use the oil, because
even if it is supposed to be of the highest quality, some companies
have mixed in some of the refined oil with the "good stuff" and
therefore there is no way to know. Moreover, you should only use the
highest quality olive oil raw, and not cook with it, except perhaps to
put some in a sauce at low-medium temperatures.
In any case, you can try these things and see for yourself. Here is
the other study:
J Food Prot. 2001 Sep;64(9):1412-9.
Antioxidant properties of Mediterranean spices compared with common
food additives.Martinez-Tome M, Jimenez AM, Ruggieri S, Frega N,
Strabbioli R, Murcia MA.
Department of Food Science, Veterinary Faculty, University of Murcia,
Spain.
In this study, the antioxidant properties of Mediterranean food spices
(annatto, cumin, oregano, sweet and hot paprika, rosemary, and saffron)
at 5% concentration and of common food additives (butylated
hydroxyanisole [BHA], butylated hydroxytoluene [BHT], and propyl
gallate) at 100 microg/g are compared. The ability of these compounds
to inhibit lipid peroxidation was, in decreasing order, rosemary >
oregano > propyl gallate > annatto > BHA > sweet paprika > cumin > hot
paprika > saffron > BHT. Deoxyribose damage is partially inhibited in
the presence of cumin extract that exhibits the strongest protective
action. The rest of the spices also protect deoxyribose better than the
BHA and BHT used in the assay. Finally, the results obtained in the
assay point to the prooxidant effect of propyl gallate. Hydrogen
peroxide scavenging activity is measured by using peroxidase-based
assay systems. In aqueous medium, the spice extracts show lower
antioxidant activity than propyl gallate, the decreasing order being
cumin > oregano > annatto > rosemary > hot paprika > sweet paprika. BHA
and BHT did not scavenge H2O2 Spices are able to scavenge HOCl and
protect alpha1-antiproteinase. The results indicate that rosemary and
oregano are more effective HOCl scavengers than the other substances
analyzed, which, in decreasing order, were propyl gallate, annatto,
sweet and hot paprika, saffron, and cumin. The effect of Mediterranean
food spices on the oxidative stability of refined olive oil tested by
the Rancimat method was compared with common food additives during
storage (72 h, 2, 4, and 6 months) at room temperature. The results
showed that the spice extracts analyzed have significant stabilizing
effects (P < 0.05)... UNQUOTE. |
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