In today's times, the bold yellow and orange spice known as turmeric has taken the world by storm.
Many people use turmeric in their food and take it in supplement form; even turmeric lattes exist!
This hype is not just a FAD; it's here to stay as it has a range of health benefits and has been around for over 4000 years dating back to the Vedic culture of India.
Plus, it's not going to go scarce any time, too; by 2027, it's predicted to reach 1.5 million metric tonnes!
To know more about this intriguing spice, health benefits, why it's so popular, and what it's best to be paired with, keep on reading.
What is Tumeric?
Turmeric is a spice known by the name of Indian Saffron or golden spice. Primarily this spice is grown across South Asia and Central America. This spice is part of the Ginger family and has been used for years within India and Nepal. This is because it was a common ingredient in Ayurveda, a traditional form of medicine, and Chinese medicine.
Compared to other spices, this is easy to distinguish as its grounded roots form a bright yellow color, and it's also the spice that makes curries go yellow. In addition to this, many colors utilize its bright color and also use it as a dye. It's also available in powder form, capsule form, teas, and extracts. You can usually get turmeric from the grocery store,
The reason why it's so popular is that it holds active compounds called curcuminoids. Curcumin is one of the main active ingredients that makes turmeric so versatile and full of medicinal properties. Moreover, it also has powerful biological benefits such as reducing chronic pain and inflammation.
How it can improve your health
When it comes to Tumeric, a lot of science exists to support its health benefits, especially curcumin. Some of the main ones are:
It's a natural anti-inflammatory.
Mainly people use turmeric for its anti-inflammatory properties. It's mainly curcumin that helps fight inflammation, and it's believed to be more effective than certain treatments and medications like ibuprofen and aspirin. Therefore, the more curcumin you consume, the more likely you will have a reduced risk of certain chronic diseases and more easy to manage conditions like arthritis, pancreatitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and more.
May be beneficial against depression
While it's not entirely proven just yet, curcumin is believed to help alleviate mental health and depression symptoms. This is evident in a controlled trial conducted looking at around 60 people who had depression. They were split into three random groups, one group took Prozac, the second took 1 gram of curcumin, and the third group took both together.
After 6 weeks of these studies, curcumin proved to produce similar improvements to what Prozac does. It's also a small amount of evidence that exists that it can increase neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin; however, more research needs to be done.
Increase antioxidant levels
Oxidative damage is one of the main contributors to aging and diseases. This is partly because our body has free radicals, which are highly reactive to essential organic substrates like fatty acids, proteins, and DNA. Antioxidants like curcumin in turmeric have a unique chemical structure and neutralize free radicals. It's also believed it can stimulate other antioxidants in your body too.
It can increase neurotrophic factor
Neurons are essential for our brain to help us for new connections and create memories. However, certain areas of your brain require more neurons and often multiply in number. Part of the reason for this is your brain's neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This is an essential gene that helps support your neurons. It also plays a vital purpose for memory recall and learning. Animal studies have been conducted that show curcumin may increase this in your brain.
May reduce your risk of heart disease
While heart disease is the number one death globally, it's believed that curcumin in turmeric can help reverse specific steps that happen in heart disease. One of the main benefits is that it betters the role of the endothelium, the lining of the blood vessels.
If there's not enough lining, it's difficult for your heart to regulate your blood pressure, and you're more at risk of blood clots. It can also reduce inflammation which is a significant contributor to heart disease.
Alongside this, it's believed that turmeric can also reduce your risk of cancer, could help treat Alzheimer's, fight age-related chronic conditions, and more.
Ginger and black pepper extract
The truth is, when it comes to turmeric to reap its benefits to the fullest, you don't want to just take it on its own. If you do, it won't get adequately absorbed into your bloodstream. It's best paired with ginger and black pepper extract. To understand this, we must look at black pepper and ginger separately.
Black pepper
Black pepper has a bioactive compound in it called piperine. This compound helps relieve headaches, nauseous, aids digestion, and is also an anti-inflammatory.
Research supports this showing that piperine combined with curcumin can increase curcumin absorption up to 2000%. Part of the reason for this is that the piperine helps curcumin pass through your intestinal wall and into your bloodstream more easily. Also, it's thought to slow down the process of curcumin broken down by your liver, increasing the amount in your blood.
Ginger
Ginger has a chemical compound known as gingerol, with potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It's believed that it can speed up reducing inflammation in combination with turmeric.
Given that turmeric, ginger, and black pepper all have powerful benefits when combined, it can be difficult always to get this from your diet. We have an extract available in capsule form to maximize their health properties. It's suitable for vegans, gluten-free, contains no artificial flavors or colorings. It also helps support digestion, fights aging, relieves pain, and more.