An ancient trend
Meet the wonder spice taking the world by storm, packed with flavour and natural healing properties.
From a hot favourite on café’s drinks menus to natural herbal remedies, there’s a good chance turmeric has crossed your path lately. The wonder spice has rapidly moved on from just being an essential ingredient in curries, to adding flavour to frothy lattes and fresh juices, and recently as a supplement with incredible health benefits.
An ancient spice that has been used for more than two thousand years, turmeric has traditionally been used in cooking, with a pungent, slightly bitter flavour and an aroma of orange or ginger. It’s native to South Asia, particularly India, but is now grown in many parts of the world including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, China, Peru and Jamaica.
Turmeric is used in Ayurvedic herbal practice and is believed to balance the three doshas (vata, pitta, and kapha), making it suitable for most body types.
A popular traditional Ayurvedic herbal remedy is mixing turmeric with warm milk and sugar to soothe the throat and give support during ills and chills, and to help dry, itchy skin. It can also be taken internally in the form of fresh juice, boiled tea, tinctures, or powder, and topically as creams, inhalations, pastes and ointments.
For years, turmeric’s only value in western cooking was that it was the cheap version of saffron. Now that many have cottoned onto its natural healing properties, from support of joint mobility and stiffness to helping muscle recovery, it’s being modernised in so many ways.
This includes turmeric lattes, a modern twist on the traditional turmeric milk toddy.
Turmeric is also known for its healing e ect on the digestive system. Our hectic lives tend to carry more stress, and sometimes poorer, more processed diets can lead to chronic, low-level irritation of our systems. Certain spices can help with protein digestion and turmeric is one of them, highly prized for its ability to help detoxify the body. Flatulence is also a common side e ect of the modern diet and lifestyle, and turmeric helps to ease the digestive system to reduce gas.
Like many spices and herbs, turmeric has a number of active ingredients, the most important of these being curcumin. It is a potent antioxidant, and in turmeric’s raw state it only contains around 2-5 per cent curcumin – you need to consume a lot to obtain the benefits.
If you feel that the trend of drinking turmeric lattes is a little too much and eating a curry every day is not your thing, you can enjoy all the health benefits of the spice by taking it as a supplement. To help your body absorb the active ingredients of the spice (including curcumin), the supplement should contain piper nigrum (black pepper) in its ingredients list. Your body will love you for introducing turmeric to your daily routine.
*Do not use turmeric if you have a bleeding disorder, gallstones or take blood thinning medication. Always read the label and take only as directed. Supplementary to a balanced diet. Endeavour Consumer Health, Auckland. TAPS NA 9476