Spices can help you cut salt, though some batches have carried lead

Key takeaways

• In a trial at UC San Diego and Johns Hopkins, adults taught to cook with herbs and spices ate nearly 1,000 milligrams less sodium a day than those cutting salt on their own¹².
• Cinnamon in recalled apple cinnamon pouches contained up to 5,110 parts per million of lead, and CDC counted 519 confirmed, probable or suspected cases; the median age of FDA-confirmed cases was 1⁴.
• As of September 2026, the FDA’s ground cinnamon alert listed 21 products with lead from about 2 to 10.7 parts per million, so check your cupboard against the list³.
• Germany’s risk agency says about 2 grams a day of cassia cinnamon, roughly three-quarters of a teaspoon, reaches the safe daily coumarin limit for a 132-pound adult¹⁰¹⁵.
• The cinnamon, turmeric and chili studies behind big health claims mostly tested supplements or relied on one survey question, not the pinch you add to dinner¹¹¹²¹³.

In the fall of 2023, parents across the country learned that their toddlers’ apple cinnamon pouches had been recalled. The cinnamon inside had been laced with lead.

By March 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had tallied 519 confirmed, probable or suspected cases across 44 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico⁴. Among the cases the FDA itself confirmed, the median age was 1⁴.

One cinnamon sample tested at 5,110 parts per million (ppm) of lead⁴. International food-standards officials had been weighing a 2.5 ppm cap for bark spices, so that sample ran more than 2,000 times higher⁴. The culprit was lead chromate, a bright pigment. The FDA’s leading theory is economic fraud, since lead chromate has a history of being slipped into spices to add weight and color⁴.

That case appears to have been fraud, not nature. Herbs and spices themselves remain some of the most useful tools in a healthy kitchen. They make vegetables, beans and whole grains taste like something, and they can stand in for much of the salt and sugar you’d otherwise add.

This guide covers both sides: what spices do in the amounts people eat, and how to keep the rare bad batch out of your pantry.

The best-proven benefit is flavor that lets you cut salt

In a study led by Cheryl Anderson of the University of California San Diego, 55 adults first ate a provided low-sodium diet for four weeks¹. More than 60% had high blood pressure¹.

Their sodium intake dropped from about 3,450 milligrams a day to about 1,656 while researchers supplied the food¹. Then came the hard part: 20 weeks of cooking for themselves.

Half joined a program that taught them to replace salt with herbs and spices, with cooking demos and tools¹². The other half tried to cut sodium on their own¹. Sodium intake crept back up overall, but the spice group ate about 966 milligrams a day less than the self-directed group¹. When the full trial appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2015, with Johns Hopkins researchers as coauthors, McCormick’s announcement put the gap at 956.8 milligrams a day².

That’s a meaningful drop from one change in cooking habits. Two caveats deserve the same scrutiny you’d give a drug trial. The trial was small, and it was paid for by the McCormick Science Institute, which the spice company McCormick & Company calls its independent research arm². A larger trial with no industry money would make the case stronger.

Still, the idea fits common sense. Salt mostly adds flavor. Spices add flavor, too, without the sodium.

Your salt-cutting spice swap table

These are starting points for four servings, not tested recipes. Add less salt than usual, taste, then adjust.

Dish	Instead of extra salt, try	Starting amount
Pot of black or pinto beans	Cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, bay leaf	1 tsp cumin, ½ tsp smoked paprika, ½ tsp garlic powder, 1 bay leaf
Roasted vegetables	Dried thyme or rosemary, black pepper, lemon zest	1 tsp herbs per sheet pan, ¼ tsp pepper, zest of 1 lemon
Chicken or fish	Paprika, dried oregano, garlic, lemon juice	1 tsp paprika, ½ tsp oregano, 2 cloves garlic
Soup or stew	Bay leaves, thyme, black pepper, a splash of vinegar at the end	2 bay leaves, ½ tsp thyme, 1 tsp vinegar
Rice or grains	Toasted cumin seed, turmeric, black pepper	½ tsp cumin seed, ¼ tsp turmeric
Eggs	Fresh chives or dill, black pepper	1 tbsp fresh herbs
Oatmeal or plain yogurt (to cut sugar)	Ceylon cinnamon, cardamom, a grating of nutmeg	½ tsp cinnamon, a pinch each of the others
Popcorn	Chili powder or smoked paprika, garlic powder	½ tsp of each per big bowl

Two tips. Acid such as lemon, lime or vinegar brightens food the way salt does, so add it at the end. Salt-free spice blends work well, but read the label, since some seasoning blends contain salt.

Kitchen amounts aren’t supplement doses

Many “superspice” headlines come from studies of extracts, capsules or questionnaires. They don’t tell you much about the quarter teaspoon in your rice.

Turmeric. The spice contains about 2% to 9% curcuminoids, the family of compounds that includes curcumin¹³. Curcumin is poorly absorbed, so supplements often add piperine from black pepper, which Poison Control says can raise absorption about 2,000%¹³. That boost has a cost: curcumin supplements taken long term have been tied to several cases of liver injury¹³.

Turmeric in curry is a different exposure than a concentrated capsule. A later series in this library covers turmeric, garlic and ginger as remedies.

Cinnamon and blood sugar. Many studies have tested cinnamon for diabetes, but the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) says it’s still unclear whether cinnamon supplements help¹¹. One reason: studies often don’t say which species or plant part they used¹¹. Cinnamon in food is likely safe; using it as a diabetes treatment is a different matter¹¹.

Chili peppers and long life. In 2017, researchers at the University of Vermont looked at 16,179 U.S. adults in a national health survey followed for a median of 18.9 years¹². People who said they ate hot red chili peppers had a 13% lower risk of dying during follow-up, after adjusting for other factors¹².

The study measured chili eating with a single question about how often, with no portion size, asked only once¹². It also told people not to count ground chili, so the sprinkle-on spice wasn’t what it measured¹². The authors note it can suggest but not confirm cause and effect¹². Chili eaters may differ from others in ways the survey missed.

Cinnamon: cassia, Ceylon and the coumarin limit

Most cinnamon sold in North America is cassia, from southeastern Asia¹¹. Ceylon cinnamon, often called “true” cinnamon, grows mainly in Sri Lanka¹¹.

Coumarin is why the species matters. It’s a natural flavor compound that has harmed the livers of especially sensitive people¹⁰¹¹. Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) reports that cassia typically holds around 3 grams of coumarin per kilogram of spice, with the worst samples near 10 grams¹⁰. Ceylon has little¹⁰.

BfR’s safety ceiling, a figure the European Food Safety Authority also arrived at, is 0.1 milligram of coumarin per kilogram of body weight per day¹⁰. Think of it as a daily dose you could take in for a lifetime without meaningful risk¹⁰.

Run the numbers and the ceiling arrives fast. About 2 grams of cassia a day gets a 132-pound (60-kilogram) adult there, and half a gram does it for a 33-pound (15-kilogram) child¹⁰. A teaspoon of ground cinnamon weighs about 2.6 grams, per USDA data, so that’s roughly three-quarters of a teaspoon for the adult and a fifth of a teaspoon for the child¹⁵.

Keep that in perspective. BfR says going slightly over the limit for a week or two is safe¹⁰. Liver effects in people given coumarin as a medicine usually reversed, and BfR knows of no liver damage reported from eating cinnamon¹⁰. NCCIH agrees that typical food amounts usually don’t cause problems¹¹.

The concern is daily, heavy use: cinnamon in coffee, oatmeal and smoothies every day, or cassia capsules. If that sounds like you, BfR suggests switching to Ceylon cinnamon¹⁰. People with liver disease should be especially careful with cassia¹¹.

The worst lead in spices comes from fraud, not the plant

The applesauce case wasn’t a one-off. After it, the FDA tested 75 samples of ground cinnamon from discount stores⁵. Several had 2 to 3.4 ppm of lead, far below the pouch cinnamon but high enough to act on⁵.

The alert list kept growing. The FDA’s ground cinnamon alert began in July 2024, and by its latest update on September 28, 2026, it listed 21 products³. Their lead levels ranged from about 2 to 10.7 ppm³. The FDA said “prolonged exposure to these products may be unsafe”³.

The FDA hasn’t set a numeric lead limit for spices. It says it doesn’t need one to act when a level is unsafe, and in 2024 it asked Congress for authority to require testing of finished foods for contaminants⁵.

Turmeric’s lead problem, and a country that fixed it

Turmeric has a long history of the same fraud, documented in Bangladesh as far back as the 1980s⁶. Lead chromate gives turmeric a brighter yellow color⁶⁷.

In 2024, researchers backed by Stanford’s King Center on Global Development published tests of 356 turmeric samples from 23 cities in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal⁶. About 14% had more than 2 micrograms of lead per gram, and 7% exceeded India’s legal limit of 10⁶. Polished roots reached 2,935 micrograms per gram⁶.

In the most contaminated samples, lead and chromium showed up in a roughly one-to-one ratio, the chemical fingerprint of lead chromate⁶. Lower levels looked more like ordinary environmental contamination⁶.

Bangladesh shows the fraud can be stopped. After a public campaign and food-safety enforcement, the share of adulterated turmeric in markets fell from about 47% in 2019 to no detectable lead in 2021⁷. Blood lead in people tested dropped by about 30% on average⁷.

Our article on toxins and children’s blood lead covers lead’s health effects and testing, so they aren’t repeated here. The FDA adds that a varied diet with enough iron, zinc and calcium may help reduce how much lead the body absorbs⁵.

Germs in spices: why most are treated before you buy them

Germs are the other contamination worry. When the FDA sampled imported spice shipments from 2007 to 2009, 6.6% carried Salmonella⁸.

Store shelves looked better: in the agency’s retail survey of 11 kinds of spice, every type tested under 1%⁸. The FDA cautions that the two numbers aren’t a clean comparison, partly because the import tests used much bigger samples⁸.

Illness from spices is rare but real. Between 1973 and 2010, the FDA found 14 outbreaks worldwide blamed on spices, three of them in the U.S.⁸. Together they sickened 1,946 people, sent 128 to the hospital and killed 2⁸.

To kill microbes, processors lean most on steam, irradiation and ethylene oxide, a sterilizing gas⁸. In its 2023 review, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cited an industry estimate that about 40% of dried spices in the U.S. are treated with ethylene oxide each year⁹.

EPA found the gas residues left on food were not a dietary risk of concern⁹. The larger worry was cancer risk for workers at sterilization plants and people living nearby, which drove EPA’s proposed new controls⁹.

Too much of a natural thing: nutmeg and the cinnamon challenge

Nutmeg is a reminder that natural doesn’t mean harmless at any dose. Poison Control says too much nutmeg can cause hallucinations, nausea, vomiting, agitation, prolonged drowsiness and even coma¹⁴.

In one case it describes, a teen who swallowed a whole bottle was still drowsy 15 hours later and alert only at about 24 hours¹⁴. Mace, a related spice, deserves the same care around children¹⁴.

The online “cinnamon challenge,” a dare to swallow dry ground cinnamon, is another hazard. NCCIH warns against it because it can cause serious harm¹¹.

What the evidence shows

Claim	Evidence rating	What it rests on
Cooking with herbs and spices helps people eat less salt	Promising but early	One 55-person trial, funded by a spice company12
Cinnamon supplements improve blood sugar in diabetes	Promising but early	Mixed supplement studies; NCCIH calls any benefit unclear11
Eating chili peppers helps you live longer	Not enough evidence	One observational study using a single diet question12
A sprinkle of turmeric works like a curcumin supplement	Not enough evidence	Curcumin is poorly absorbed; supplements use concentrates and piperine13
Curcumin supplements are risk-free	Evidence says no, or unsafe	Liver injury cases with long-term use13
A heaping daily spoonful of cassia stays within coumarin safety limits	Evidence says no, or unsafe	About 2 grams a day reaches the adult limit; BfR advises Ceylon for heavy users10
Large amounts of nutmeg are safe because it’s natural	Evidence says no, or unsafe	Poison Control reports hallucinations and coma14

Spice traditions are worth keeping, and so is checking the jar

Nearly every food culture has its spice cabinet: masalas, adobos, za’atar, five-spice, berbere, herbes de Provence. These blends turn humble beans, grains and vegetables into meals people want to eat again. That may be their biggest health gift.

Respect for those traditions fits well with a little vigilance. The worst lead cases were economic fraud against traditional foods, committed for profit. Bangladesh’s turmeric cleanup shows that public campaigns, testing and enforcement can work⁶⁷.

You don’t need to fear your spice rack. Buy from sources you trust, rotate jars, lean on herbs you grow yourself, and let flavor do the work salt used to do.

Questions readers ask

The bottom line

Herbs and spices are among the easiest ways to make home cooking taste good with less salt and sugar, and one trial found that lesson cut sodium by nearly 1,000 milligrams a day. Most bigger health claims rest on supplements or observational studies, so enjoy spices for flavor rather than as medicine.

The real risks are specific. Check ground cinnamon against the FDA’s lead list, be cautious with cheap, vivid turmeric, keep cassia to modest daily amounts, and treat nutmeg with respect.

Related reading

• Children’s blood lead levels fell 96% without help from any detox product
• How to judge a cup of herbal tea, which is gentle but not automatically harmless
• What gets into supplements that isn’t on the label
• Heritage diets hold up in research, and you can keep yours alive
• Cooked beans are cheap and well studied, and the lectin scare applies to raw ones

Sources

1. Ellis M. “Spices and Herbs ‘Intervention’ Helps Adults Reduce Salt Intake” (report on an American Heart Association meeting presentation by Cheryl A. M. Anderson et al.). Medical News Today, March 20, 2014. medicalnewstoday.com
2. McCormick & Company. News release on Anderson CA, Cobb LK, Miller ER 3rd, et al., Appel LJ, “Effects of a Behavioral Intervention That Emphasizes Spices and Herbs on Adherence to Recommended Sodium Intake” (SPICE trial), American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, published online August 12, 2015. Company release cited for publication and funding details, September 23, 2015. mccormickcorporation.gcs-web.com
3. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “More Ground Cinnamon Products Added to FDA Public Health Alert Due to Presence of Elevated Levels of Lead.” Content current as of September 28, 2026. fda.gov
4. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Investigation of Elevated Lead & Chromium Levels: Cinnamon Applesauce Pouches (November 2023).” Content current as of October 3, 2024. fda.gov
5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “A Conversation with FDA on Steps the Agency is Taking to Address Unsafe Levels of Lead Found in Cinnamon.” March 6, 2024. fda.gov
6. Forsyth JE, Mistree D, Nash E, Angrish M, Luby SP. “Evidence of Turmeric Adulteration With Lead Chromate Across South Asia.” Science of the Total Environment, 2024;949:175003. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
7. Stanford King Center on Global Development. “Initiative Combating Lead Exposure.” Accessed October 2026. kingcenter.stanford.edu
8. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Risk Profile: Pathogens and Filth in Spices” (2017 update to the 2013 draft). fda.gov
9. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Ethylene Oxide: Proposed Interim Registration Review Decision,” Docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2013-0244. March 2023. epa.gov
10. German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). “FAQ on Coumarin in Cinnamon and Other Foods.” September 27, 2012, updated. bfr.bund.de
11. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. “Cinnamon: Usefulness and Safety.” Last updated November 2024. nccih.nih.gov
12. Chopan M, Littenberg B. “The Association of Hot Red Chili Pepper Consumption and Mortality: A Large Population-Based Cohort Study.” PLoS ONE, 2017;12(1):e0169876. journals.plos.org
13. Johnson-Arbor K. “Turmeric: From the Kitchen to Cancer and COVID-19.” Poison Control, National Capital Poison Center. Accessed October 2026. poison.org
14. Soloway RAG. “Kitchen Surprises and Cautions.” Poison Control, National Capital Poison Center. Accessed October 2026. poison.org
15. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, SR Legacy record 171320, “Spices, cinnamon, ground.” Accessed October 2026. fdc.nal.usda.gov