I’m 55. I think I’ve mentioned that before. So the phrase “women of a certain age” comes to mind more often than I’d like to admit. Women of a certain age experience all sorts of changes within their bodies. And one of those is the slowing… the damn near grinding to a halt… of their metabolism.

So what’s a girl to do in order to speed her system back up? Dr. Oz suggests the regular addition of three spices: Ginger, Mustard, and Cayenne Pepper. Problem is, I don’t think he was suggesting we make heavily sweetened ginger ale, put mustard on a corndog, or add cayenne pepper to our grilled ribs barbecue sauce as dietary staples.

But since I’ve become conscious of the properties these foods have to fire up the furnace, I’ve decided to give it a good try. I put ginger root in my fresh carrot juice, mustard in my deviled eggs, and cayenne pepper on my plain baked potato. It can’t hurt.