Turmeric

An Indian Medicinal Food

If you’ve never heard of Turmeric, you’ve probably haven’t heard of Curcumin either. Turmeric is a spice that gives curry it’s yellow color and has been used in India for thousands of years. The native people of India have known that Turmeric contains compounds with medicinal properties and there is research that can back this up.8

Curcumin

A Powerful Anti-Inflammatory Compound

These bioactive compounds are known as curcuminoids, the most prevalent of which is Curcumin. Curcumin is what gives Turmeric it’s powerful anti-inflammatory benefits, that in some cases matches the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory drugs.9 This is because curcumin is a very strong antioxidant that can neutralize free radicals due to its chemical structure and boost the activity of the body’s own antioxidant enzymes

Why Turmeric Should Always be Consumed with Black Pepper

One unfortunate thing, is our bodies poor ability to absorb curcumin into the bloodstream. This is where black pepper can play a significant role with the absorption of curcumin and why curry and black pepper taste well together. Black pepper contains Piperine, a natural substance that is responsible for the pungency of black pepper. In one study,10 researchers showed that 20mg of Piperine (about ¼ tsp) taken with curcumin increase its bioavailability by %2000! Bioavailability, simply is the ease with which any nutrient can make its way from the food you eat into your body.

Finding Quality Turmeric

As with just about everything quality matters, this is also true for turmeric. Ideally, you want to get the turmeric root (looks similar to ginger root) and grate off what you’re going to use. If you’ve never used fresh ground turmeric, but have used ground turmeric you’ll be amazed at the difference. If fresh turmeric root is not available to you, then you should look for the highest quality ground (dried) turmeric you can find. Often but not always, you can tell a quality ground turmeric by its color. Which should actually be more of a dark orange, rather than light or dark yellow.

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3633300/
  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19594223
  3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9619120

No sweat recipe of the week

HOT COCOA WITH TURMERIC, COCONUT OIL & SPICES

Ingredients

  • 2 cups HOT (not boiling) Coconut Milk or Water
  • 1 TBSP unrefined coconut oil
  • 1 TBSP unsweetened raw cacao powder (more depending on how chocolatey you want it)
  • 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
  • a pinch black pepper (needed for proper absorption of turmeric)
  • ½ tsp of Ceylon Cinnamon powder
  • ½ tsp of Sea Salt or Himalayan pink salt
  • a pinch of cayenne pepper (Optional)
  • 1 tsp Chocolate Protein Powder (Optional)
  • 1 tsp of Maple Syrup or Honey (Optional)

Instructions

  1. Combine ALL ingredients in blender and blend to make a smooth, hot mixture
  2. Maybe wait for it to cool or Drink immediately, I’d go with the latter