Spice Up Your Life with this Wonder Ingredient!

Today I'd like to share with you some fascinating information - just an overview really - about the humble but oh-so-amazing spice, Turmeric.

Originating in India, where it was possibly originally used as a dye, over the past few centuries and decades, the health benefits of turmeric continue to be unravelled.

So let me cut to the chase and give you the low down already.

The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin, and it's the substance that gives curry its yellow colour.

There is growing evidence that shows the health benefits of turmeric include the following:

• Powerful antioxidant effects - stronger than vitamin E, vitamin C, grape seed extract, pine bark extract, able to mop up one of the most reactive oxidants known to man, the hydroxyl radical.
• Promoting healthy blood and liver functions
• Immune system booster
• Skin health and healing
• Digestive system help, helps regulate intestinal flora so great to take if you've just had a course of antibiotics or a bout of candida infection...
• Shown to prevent breast cancer from spreading to lungs in mice: curcumin has antioestrogenic effects, and as many breast cancers are oestrogen dependent, this shows great promise in preventing or at least halting progression of the disease
• Arrests prostate cancer progression, prevents prostate cancer when used with cauliflower
• Antiseptic, antibacterial
• Natural anti-inflammatory and pain killer: great for arthritis type of pain too
• Is thermogenic (as many spices are), meaning it boosts your metabolism and helps you burn calories, which can be useful in weight management...
• Shows great promise in treating other cancers.
• Supports overall eye health
• Helps you maintain normal cholesterol levels
• Helps you maintain normal blood sugar levels

These are just a few of the health benefits of turmeric. To enjoy these benefits you should have some turmeric every day in some form or other.



Turmeric in the news:

• 2004: Research done in Loyola University Medical Centre in Chicago suggests that turmeric may have a protective effect against Leukaemia, which would explain the low incidence of this cancer in children in asian countries
  
  
• 2011: Research done in Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles shows that drug derived from turmeric may help the body repair some of the damage caused by stroke, in the immediate aftermath, once they found a way to make the curcumin cross the blood-brain barrier. According to the Stroke Association, this is the 'first significant research' showing that curcumin could help stroke patients. Human trials needed, as this study was done on rabbits...still very encouraging though.
  
  
• 2009: 'Eating Curry at least twice a week could slow down or prevent dementia' - paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, by Prof Murali Doraiswamy from North Carolina, citing the ability of curcumin to prevent spread of amyloid protein plaques in the brain (these plaques are implicated in dementia...)
  
  
• 2009: British Journal of Cancer - Turmeric kills off cancer cells in the gullet within 24 hours...
  
• 2007: Cancer Res 2007 Mar 1:67(5):1988: "Curcumin ...has emerged as one of the most powerful chemopreventative and anticancer agents. It's biological effects range from antioxidant and anti-inflammatory to inhibition of angiogenesis, and is shown to possess specific anti-tumoral activity."

Now that you have this information, what do you do with it? Here, let me help you out...

a) Where should you get your turmeric?
- Not necessarily in your local grocery store 'spice' rack, as this likely has the highly processed form of this spice, which is devoid of the health benefits listed above.

- Look for an organic source; if the one available to you cannot prove certified organic you may risk missing out on the health benefits of turmeric.

- Whenever possible, buy the actual root itself, ideally organically grown (this is available in some local grocery stores if you search carefully...otherwise health food shops may stock this.)

- If all else fails, find yourself a 'certified organically grown' turmeric supplement but please make sure it doesn't contain such chemicals and potential toxins as Magnesium Stearate, Dibasic Calcium Phosphate and other such substances with big sounding names.


b) How much turmeric per day, and how should you take it?
- You can take it in various ways, the principle to bear in mind is that you want to take it as close to its raw state as possible so if for instance you use it for cooking, add it to the meal when it's nearly ready to be eaten, rather than at the start of the cooking.

- So you can use it for cooking as described above: so many recipes are available to give you ideas on ways to use it. I use it to cook pretty much everything: chicken curries, egg salads, you name it.

- Or you can make a tea with the powder and drink it 2-3 times daily between meals. For this you'd need to use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of the powder in a cup/pot, pour boiling water over it, let it infuse for about 5 minutes and drink. You could use honey as a sweetener but if you need to avoid sweeteners you can use Stevia instead to give it some taste. You could also add ginger to the tea for that extra 'kick'.

- You could also make a great tea by boiling the root directly and drinking the brew from there. Yum!

- Or you could take it a as a supplement, in which case you should take 250-500mg three times a day.


c) Are there any contraindications to taking turmeric?
- Don't take this without your doctor's advice, if you suffer from gall stones or biliary obstruction

- If you are on blood thinning medication you shouldn't take turmeric without your doctor's advice, as it's got blood thinning properties itself, and slows down clotting of blood

- If you're pregnant, talk to your doctor before taking turmeric as it can stimulate your uterus...Having said this, turmeric has been taken for millenia by pregnant women with no untoward effect. However it's just good practice that you should consult your doctor before you introduce anything new to your lifestyle if you are pregnant or otherwise unwell.

- "Curcumin has an outstanding safety profile and a number of multi-functional actions ..." Phase I clinical trials, using massive doses of curcumin, or turmeric extract (up to 8 grams/day for four months) "did not result in discernable toxicities."

Source: Adv Exp Med Biol 2007;565:471




Questions, Comments?
If you have any comments, questions or recipe ideas to do with turmeric, do please share in the space provided, thanks!