Most prescription medicines either are plant extracts or synthesized from plants. Thus, it’s not terribly surprising that herbs may also be a way to boost your metabolism, help you feel fuller longer and even affect how your body processes and stores fat. Not all herbs have this potential, but there are at least six stars in this field worth giving a try.
Capsicum annuum: Capsicum annuum is a type of chili pepper containing the compound capsaicin, which gives chilies their heat. Animals fed a high-fat diet and given capsaicin had lower levels of blood sugar and leptin, a hormone that controls fullness. Capsaicin supplements can increase your body’s production of energy and help spur the breakdown of carbohydrates after you eat.
Cinnamon: Cinnamon isn’t just good for breakfast rolls. Rats with the pre-diabetic condition known as insulin resistance that were given a cinnamon extract had the same ability to use blood sugar as rats on a normal diet. Researchers in Sweden found that seasoning a high-carbohydrate food with cinnamon minimized its effect on blood sugar. Pakistani volunteers with type 2 diabetes given less than half a teaspoon of cinnamon daily also reduced their blood sugar levels.
Ginseng: Ginseng may make great tea or stir-fry, but it can also fight fat. Panax ginseng berry extracts helped restore normal blood-sugar levels in diabetic mice in just 12 days and helped the mice lose weight. Korean researchers also discovered that wild ginseng extracts prevented hyperglycemia and obesity in mice fed a high-fat diet. Korean white ginseng extracts can also help delay intestinal fat absorption.
Grape Seed Extract: Researchers in the Netherlands found that grape seed extract reduced the calorie intake of healthy people by four percent over a 24-hour period, while a study in Spain showed that grape seed extract improved insulin resistance and could help fight diabetes. Phytochemicals in grape seed extract also inhibit two fat-metabolizing enzymes.
Milk Thistle: Milk thistle has the ability to help control the type of inflammation often associated with obesity. A Korean study showed that milk thistle helps prevent the changeover of baby fat cells into new adult fat cells and reduces fatty acid synthesis to keep the size of fat cells in check. In Iran, scientists discovered that milk thistle combined with a diabetes drug improved body mass index in people with adult-onset diabetes.
Quercetin: Quercetin is a compound found naturally in many fresh fruits and vegetables. Japanese researchers found quercetin helped prevent diet-induced obesity in mice fed a high-sucrose diet and also decreased levels of leptin, the hormone linked to obesity. It gets even better–a group of scientists at the University of Georgia in Athens discovered that a combination of quercetin and resveratrol from grapes decreased fat accumulation in cells by close to 70 percent.
If you’re diabetic or have other medical conditions, check with your doctor before taking any supplements. Even if you are healthy, these supplements haven’t been studied on people long term, and since the upper tolerable intake levels aren’t established, it’s best to try them in smaller amounts for a short period. However, with obesity linked to diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, having added ammunition in the fight to keep your weight down may make trying these herbs worth a shot.
