The Creamy Food Padma Lakshmi Eats With Almost Every Meal

Padma Lakshmi can famously eat extremely spicy food: On the popular YouTube show "Hot Ones," she cruised through a spicy 10-wing gauntlet without breaking a sweat. "As a child, I was with spicy condiments like most children are with chocolate or candy," she told First We Feast. But how can her stomach handle so many spices on a daily basis? With the help of her preferred type of yogurt: dahi. "It helps calm my tummy with spicy food. It also just makes me feel good. I think it's nice to have a little bit with every meal, or most meals, if you can," Lakshmi explained to Eating Well.

If you're looking for the secret to handling foods with a kick like a champion, you may want to incorporate dahi into your daily menu — and kick the day off with the nutritious breakfast she uses to fuel her workouts.

Lakshmi doesn't skip breakfast in the mornings since she needs energy for her daily workout, as she stated in her Eating Well interview. To start the day, she'll have freshly sliced papaya fruit topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon, and of course, a bit of heat with a drizzle of spicy maple syrup. Along with this fruit bowl, she'll have dahi or curd, which is a type of homemade Indian yogurt. Throughout the day, Lakshmi will continue to have yogurt. For lunch, she'll have dal, curry, rice, and a side of yogurt, citing its feel-good effects, including calming down the interior of her stomach from all the spicy food. 

The celebrity chef has good reason to snack on yogurt all day with such a spicy diet since her yogurt trick is scientifically backed. How? The fats found in dairy products tackle the chemical compound responsible for the spicy burn of hot food and thus help settle everything down. So the next time you find yourself with a spice-filled day before you, remember to bring along a bit of yogurt for the ride.