You’ve probably heard that herbs, spices, and essential oils can do many wonderful things for your body, like balance your hormones, reduce inflammation, improve your gut health, speed up fat loss, and more.
How true are these claims, though?
Can you really help “optimize your body” by sprinkling some goodies on your meals and huffing nice-smelling oils?
Can the pigment in curry really improve your joint health?
Does adding cinnamon to your oatmeal really help control your blood sugar?
Is garlic the super antioxidant, immune-boosting, cancer-fighting wunder-spice that many people say it is?
Well, this is what we’re going to explore in today’s episode with Kurtis Frank, who is the co-founder and was the lead researcher of Examine.com, as well as the Director of Research for my supplement company, Legion Athletics.
Kurtis has researched spices, herbs, and essential oils extensively and has a lot of insight to share. As you’ll see, a lot of the marketing hype used to sell us on these things is unwarranted, but there definitely are a handful of winners that deserve some attention.
So…if you’ve wondered if spices like turmeric, cinnamon, garlic, cocoa, and rosemary, and essential oils like lemon, rose, and lavender can actually improve your health and well-being, then this episode is for you.
TIME STAMPS:
6:47 – What are spices & herbs?
9:00 – What are the health benefits of Cinnamon?
10:12 – How much cinnamon do you need to consume to cause an effect?
11:14 – What are the health benefits of peppermint and saffron?
14:09 – What are the health benefits of turmeric and curcumin?
16:14 – What are the health benefits of garlic?
19:46 – What are the health benefits of rosemary?
22:59 – What are the health benefits of ginger?
25:46 – Do spices promote fat burning and boost metabolism?
28:52 – What are the health benefits of cocoa?
30:32 – Do essential oils have health benefits?
37:59 – What are the health benefits of rose, lavender, and lemon scented essential oils?
What did you think of this episode? Have anything else to share? Let me know in the comments below!
Legion Featured Author
Mike Matthews
Mike Matthews is the founder of Legion as well as the author of several award-winning fitness books, including Bigger Leaner Stronger, Muscle for Life, and The Shredded Chef.
His simple and science-based approach to building muscle, losing fat, and getting healthy has sold over a million books and helped thousands of people build their best bodies ever, and his work has been featured in many popular outlets including Esquire, Men’s Health, Elle, Women’s Health, Muscle & Strength, and more, as well as on FOX and ABC.
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Free Worldwide Shipping & Returns
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you live in the UK or Canada, your order ships free when it’s over $99.
Why the restriction on international orders? Unfortunately, shipping abroad is very expensive, and if we didn’t require a minimum order size, we’d lose a lot of money. But! We're also hustling to improve our international logistics and will be passing our savings along to our international customers.
Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
Free Worldwide Shipping & Returns
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you’re outside the USA, your order ships free when it’s over $199.
Why the restriction on international orders? Unfortunately, shipping abroad is very expensive, and if we didn’t require a minimum order size, we’d lose a lot of money. But! We're also hustling to improve our international logistics and will be passing our savings along to our international customers.
Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
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Some popular pre-workouts are all-natural. Some contain the right mix of high-quality ingredients. Some provide clinically effective doses. But only Pulse checks each of these boxes.
Pulse doesn’t just “contain natural ingredients''—every ingredient is naturally sourced from plants and animals. Pulse contains no artificial or synthetic substances of any kind.
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While these types of chemicals may not be as dangerous as some people claim, studies suggest that regular consumption of them may indeed be harmful to our health. And that’s why we don’t put any of them into our products.
Before you buy a sports supplement, you should know that it's clean, safe, and transparent. And that's exactly what Labdoor's third-party testing and certification means.
It's hard to know for sure, but this probably makes Pulse the most-popular all-natural pre-workout supplement in the world.
If you don’t absolutely love this product, just let us know, and we’ll give you a full refund on the spot. No forms or return necessary.
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Analyzed for purity and potency in a state-of-the-art ISO 17025 accredited lab by Labdoor™, the gold standard of third-party lab testing.
Analyzed for purity and potency in a state-of-the-art ISO 17025 accredited lab, the gold standard of third-party lab testing.
This product doesn’t just “contain natural ingredients”—every ingredient is naturally sourced from plants and animals. This product contains no artificial or synthetic sweeteners or flavors of any kind.
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