Looking to add some flavour to your diet? Cloves are often used for their pungency, but they’re also packed with health benefits. Cloves have been used for centuries to heal the body. Here’s a look at why you should implement this bold flavour to your diet.
In terms of vitamins and minerals, cloves are a good source of vitamin C, vitamin K1, calcium, iron, magnesium, and manganese. Plus if you’re grinding cloves into your cooking you’re also getting a good source of dietary fibre. The true health benefits come from the antioxidants and nutrients you won’t find on a nutrition label.
Cloves Health Benefits
Clove extract greatly improves metabolism and has shown to reduce blood-glucose levels. This is probably a result of cloves metabolic effect. Cloves have been shown to greatly increase metabolism, which is important for weight loss and burning energy. Your body is burning sugar off at a much higher rate.
Clove extract has also shown to increase mitochondrial function. This is amazing because the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Not only does the mitochondria produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which the body uses for energy, but it’s also responsible for cell death, growth, and the cell cycle.
Clove extract has been found to be an effective way to remarkably lower fasting blood-glucose levels. This is important for type 2 diabetics and anyone at risk of type 2 diabetes. That being said, it takes more than adding good whole food to your diet to get healthy and stabilize blood sugars. You also have to remove the junk foods too. Filling your diet with sugars and processed foods is still going to damage your body. Even if cloves can help burn that sugar, you’re still causing your body unnecessary stress.
Cloves have been used in traditional medicine for centuries. Cloves have been believed to help cure male infertility, increasing sperm count and health. Recent science has been able to give credit to this natural course of treatment. One study found that the antioxidants in cloves produced healthier, more viable sperm, improving male fertility. Another study conducted on mice found that low levels of clove extract did, in fact, increase sperm count. However, it also showed too much of this extract had a reverse effect and deteriorated sperm health. While these studies were conducted on animals, it appears that this traditional use for cloves could, in fact, be beneficial for male fertility.
Possibly one of the greatest benefits of cloves is its anti-depressant effect. Clove extract oil has shown to help reduce the stress-induced behaviours caused by the hippocampal. It has a stress relieving effect on the brain, and I think we can all use a little less stress in our lives. Stress is damaging and destructive. That goes for mental stress too. Stress wears the body down, and keeps you from being able to work at your best. Depression and anxiety are serious illnesses that often get ignored, but it’s critical to address all illnesses, be it physical or mental. A proper diet can go a long way to healing our body and mind.
Clove extract has also shown to have a cytotoxicity effect towards breast cancer cells. This means that clove extract could kill cancer cells. This itself isn’t a cure for cancer, but it could bring insight into developing a cure. It is amazing how the anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiseptic nature of cloves can pinpoint and fight off these toxic cells.
Less may be more when it comes to clove extract. While low doses of the extract have shown to have many healing benefits, too high of doses seem to have counter effects. This is a sign that some foods are meant to be used in their natural state, compared to an amplified extract. You can use an extract safely, but incorporating cloves into your cooking will give you the health benefits without overpowering your diet.
