Keith Scott MD
My name is Keith Scott and I have been interested in the nutritional aspects of disease since I qualified as a doctor over 30 years ago. On this web page I would like to share an interesting personal story about spices with you. A Spicy Tale A couple of years ago I started writing my third book on a health related topic. While carrying out research for the book, numerous references to scientific studies showing how important spices are in helping to prevent and treat a variety of diseases, kept turning up.The closer I looked into this subject the more I discovered how much research was being done into the therapeutic and preventive properties of spices. A Spice Deficiency Cured! As I continued to do more research for the book, Medicinal Seasonings I realized that I needed to increase my own intake of spices. I have never been very partial to spicy food even though I enjoy the occasional Thai or Indian meal and my diet would be considered by most nutritionists to be very healthy. However the new evidence told me otherwise. I would need to eat considerably more spices if I wanted to have what I began to appreciate was a more balanced diet. The thought of daily including large quantities of different spices in my food was a bit daunting so I looked around for a spice supplement to take instead. However nothing like that existed so it was off to the supermarket where I bought packets of dried spices including cinnamon, turmeric, allspice, paprika, sage, rosemary and many others. I made a powdered mixture of over 20 different spices (most of which were eventually included in the VitaSpice formulation) and began to take a couple of teaspoonfuls of it every day. Reasoning for Seasoning My prime reason for taking this mixture of spices was to try to avoid falling victim to one or more degenerative diseases (cancer, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease and diabetes). Being a "Baby Boomer" I am at the age where these illnesses tend to be uppermost in one's mind - especially when one sees so many of one's contemporaries falling victim to these scourges of middle and old age. Unexpected Benefits The results of my research led me to have no expectations of my daily spice mixture other than the hope that it would help to maintain my good health and stave off degenerative diseases. If it could do that then what more could I ask? In fact the spice mixture did indeed give me far more benefits than I had anticipated. About two or three months after I began to take the mixture I noticed several very important improvements in my health. More Energy, Better Memory, Enhanced Performance My short-term memory, that had been declining since my early forties, improved dramatically and my energy levels increased significantly. I no longer fell asleep while reading after lunch or dinner and felt far more vigorous than I had for years. To have been able to reverse these two common symptoms of aging was extremely gratifying. However there was a third unexpected bonus derived from taking the spice mixture. I love cycling and often enter fairly demanding races that last well over three hours. In the past, if I participated in one of these events in the morning, I had to take a long nap in the afternoon and I would still feel tired the next day. Since taking the spice mixture I no longer have that problem and, although tired after a long race, I don't have to take a nap and am able to function normally for the rest of the day. Many of my cycling friends have also found that VitaSpice dramatically improves their recovery from these endurance events. No More BFS I used to suffer from an annoying condition called BFS - benign fasciculation syndrome (also known as muscle fasciculation syndrome or cramp fasciculation syndrome). This is a harmless malady where muscle groups twitch vigorously for varying periods of time. What causes the fasciculations (twitching) can vary from person to person but in my case it made my calf muscles twitch vigorously for several days after long cycle races. This twitching of the muscles can be annoying; however after taking VitaSpice for several months the fasciculations have disappeared completely. Now I Know Why In retrospect I could almost have anticipated the benefits that have accrued to me by taking the mixture of spices that has now become VitaSpice. There are scientific reasons why spices have helped my memory, energy levels and recovery from endurance sport. Spices have incredibly high antioxidant activity and it is the antioxidants that counter the free radical damage associated with memory loss, fatigue and prolonged exercise. Spices are also rich in other non-antioxidant compounds that have other valuable benefits and these are described in Medicinal Seasonings. Lessons from the Kalahari Desert
As I delved further into the subject I began to recall more about the San Bushmen, a nomadic hunter/gatherer people who inhabit the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa. Many of them had been patients of mine when I lived in that area and I had paid close attention to their interesting lifestyle and noted their overall good health. Their eating habits held a special interest for me and two particularly significant aspects of their diet stood out. The first was that the San Bushmen ate a huge range of different plant species and, secondly, most of these plants were very strongly flavored. Very few of the foods that they gathered were bland tasting - in other words most of the plant foods that they ate were "spicy" in nature. Click this link to view video: Spices, A Health Mystery Solved New book, new subject
The relationship between spicy foods and man's development from a primitive (but very healthy) hunter/gatherer diet to our current (generally unhealthy) food preferences continued to intrigue me. It became apparent that the connection between contemporary research into spices and the anthropological and geographical shifts in dietary patterns, relating to the epidemiology of various diseases, was telling us something very important. Namely, that spices are the richest source of antioxidants and many other nutritive compounds of any food category - including fruit and vegetables. This topic was so fascinating that I abandoned my original manuscript and, instead, began writing Medicinal Seasonings, The Healing Power Of Spices. Demand for a spice supplement
After the publication of Medicinal Seasonings, The Healing Power Of Spices many readers endeavored to increase the quantities of spices in their food or make their own spice concoctions. However the majority of them were unable to change their diets enough to include sufficient spices in their meals and many of them were unable to swallow the mixture of spices that I had recommended. The solution was to formulate an encapsulated spice supplement (VitaSpice) to make it easier for everyone to take adequate daily quantities of spices. The Tale End So, instead of a twist at the end of my tale, there is a spicy tang! I am exceptionally grateful for what they have done for my own health and hope that many others will look at the evidence and see what powerful, medicinal foods these tasty plants really are. Loading
|
