Marinades may be more than just tasty treats for summer shish kabob.

They say that variety is the spice of life, but could spice extend your life by warding off deadly diseases?

According to a new study published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, perhaps so, because spicy marinades made for meats and shish kabob have cancer-fighting properties.

Researchers discovered this after analyzing several marinades that used zesty ingredients like pepper, ginger, sesame and garlic.  An in-depth analysis of the marinades indicated that all the marinade variations were rich in antioxidants, which are particularly effective in warding off diseases like cancer by fighting the debilitating effects free radicals have on the body.

Among the menagerie of marinades tested, two stood out for their richness in antioxidants:  “jerk” marinade, which is a Jamaican-style marinade, and a marinade containing sesame, ginger and teriyaki sauce.

Now, as anyone who uses marinades with regularity knows, marinades aren’t used on vegetables or meats a few minutes before dinner served.  They’re used well in advance of dinner, where the food can settle and soak up the marinade, making for an especially tender and tasty treat come suppertime.  But interestingly, the longer meat and vegetables marinate in marinade, the smaller the antioxidant yield is.

Because of this, researchers suggest brushing or coating the meat just prior to dinner being served.

The researchers hail from the University of Western Ontario.

So, I’m sure you’re wondering what I like to use for marinades.  What’s my “Mangano Marinade” of choice, as it were?

Well, I don’t have any favorites in particular, but whenever I do break out a marinade mixture, I use Bragg Liquid Aminos as a replacement for teriyaki sauce.

Teriyaki sauce is no doubt a marinade staple, but it’s LOADED with sodium.  For example, a mere two tablespoons of La Choy Teriyaki Sauce has a whopping 2,044 milligrams of sodium! That’s 94 percent of the recommended amount of sodium a person should have in an entire day!!

Besides being relatively low in soy sauce (about 100 fewer grams of sodium per tablespoon than La Choy), Bragg contains 16 amino acids that you’ll never find in your typical teriyaki sauce, including arginine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, and leucine. Oh, also unlike La Choy, the sodium that is in Bragg’s is naturally occurring; in other words, no sodium is added.

So go ahead and break out that marinade mixture you’ve been dying to try.  So long as its ingredients are healthy ones (e.g. balsamic vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, honey, garlic, rosemary, pepper, etc.), marinades are a great way to spice up your dinner while increasing your antioxidant intake in the process.

Sources:
newsmaxhealth.com
nlm.nih.gov
bragg.com