Beyond its culinary uses in mustards, butter, cheeses, and curry powders, turmeric has become a superstar in the spice world thanks to its many medicinal benefits.
Nowadays, it seems that everybody is writing about turmeric, everybody is using it, and turmeric is considered to be a real miracle regarding our health. It can be used to treat tons of different health issues, get rid of wrinkles, and can even make your hair grow thicker.
Turmeric has become increasingly popular over the past few years, and rightfully so! It’s an amazing superfood. More and more people are resorting to only natural ingredients instead of medications. It provides a wide range of health benefits, but you must ensure that your body uses it properly.
Its active ingredient, curcumin, gives its yellow color, as it is responsible for almost all the health benefits of this miraculous spice. According to study abstracts from the National Library of Medicine’s bibliographic database MEDLINE, turmeric and its primary polyphenol curcumin have over 600 potential medicinal properties of curcumin and turmeric.
Nutritionists, doctors, and experts recommend the regular use of this spice as a way to improve health and solve numerous health issues. Therefore, if you add it to your regular diet, you will experience major health improvements! Since curcumin is the active compound that provides the favorable properties of turmeric, you need to know that it is not easily absorbed.
However, before you do so, you must know some things concerning this spice before you decide to incorporate it into your regular diet:
THE BODY DOES NOT ABSORB IT EASILY
Turmeric’s active ingredient is far from easy to be absorbed. Namely, the poor absorption rate should be enhanced to enjoy the health benefits you expect to gain from the consumption of turmeric. Moreover, the findings of clinical and animal studies have shown that the absorption of curcumin concentrations in blood plasma, urine, and peripheral tissues are extremely low, even not detectable in some cases, without counting the size of the dosage. So, its health benefits cannot be completely used.
Therefore, it is of great importance to stimulate and improve the bioavailability of this ingredient. We will reveal a few ways to succeed in it:
- Heat Increases the bioavailability of turmeric
“The better way to take it, I feel, is to use it in your cooking very extensively. If you have any sauté, just sprinkle it in. The moment you heat oil and add turmeric to it, it now becomes completely bioavailable to you.”
Dr. Sukumar explains:
“The potent ingredient in turmeric is curcumin, which, despite its power, is not easily absorbed by the body without assistance. This is where the sauté pan and a little warm oil come into play.”
“I use it [turmeric] in every sauté, just a quarter teaspoon, a half teaspoon is enough. But you don’t have to use it sparingly – use it lavishly.”
“The better way to take it, I feel, is to use it in your cooking very extensively. If you have any sauté, just sprinkle it in. The moment you heat oil and add turmeric to it, it now becomes completely bioavailable to you.”
- Combine it With Black Pepper
Black pepper’s main compound — piperine — increases curcumin absorption, the active ingredient in turmeric responsible for all the health benefits. In other words, black pepper can help enhance your body’s ability to process and use turmeric for all that it’s good for.
Black pepper is a potent natural medicine as well, and when combined with turmeric, it acts as an adjuvant.
According to NutritionFacts:
“If people consume a bunch of turmeric curcumin, in just one hour there will be a little bump in the level in their bloodstream. We cannot notice some significant increase since our liver is working hard to remove it. But what will happen if the process is suppressed by consuming ¼ of a teaspoon’s worth of black pepper?”
Then you see curcumin levels skyrocket. The same amount of curcumin is consumed, but the bioavailability shoots up by 2000%. Even just a little pinch of pepper — 1/20th of a teaspoon—can significantly boost levels. And guess what a common ingredient in curry powder is besides turmeric? Black pepper.”
Furthermore, the findings of the study under the title “Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers” indicate that when piperine was administered alone with turmeric, it boosted the bioavailability of curcumin by 2000%.
- Healthy Fat
Since it is fat-soluble, therefore, if mix it with healthy fat, like olive, coconut, or ghee oil, curcumin is directly absorbed into the bloodstream through the lymphatic system while partially bypassing the liver, to boost its absorption rate, it will provide all its health benefits. This is extremely important as curcumin is not subjected to metabolic enzymes and remains in its free form and stays longer in the body.
Moreover, Dr. Nibber maintains:
“This is very important because less curcumin is exposed to metabolic enzymes and remains in a free form allowing it to stay in the body longer. “
To sum it up, to obtain maximum results from the use of turmeric and enjoy all its health benefits, you need to remember:
- To combine it with freshly ground black pepper and thus boost the turmeric’s absorption by 2,000%
- Mix it with some healthy fat to bypass the liver
- To heat it to activate turmeric
Also, before you start using it, The University of Maryland Medical Center suggests that the recommended daily allowance for turmeric is as follows:
Dried, powdered root: 1 – 3 grams per day
Cut root: 1.5 – 3 grams per day
There is a good reason also why you should add turmeric to your daily menu.
One of the biggest reasons why you should include turmeric in your diet, now more than ever, is because of its inflammation-fighting powers. Though short-term inflammation is beneficial, it can turn into a big problem when it becomes chronic and improperly attacks your body’s healthy tissues. Chronic inflammation caused by a poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle causes dangerous diseases over the long haul, including cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s, and various degenerative conditions.
Adding turmeric to your diet is a simple way to add a kick of flavor to your dishes while allowing your body to do what it does best: keep you healthy. Curcumin has strong anti-inflammatory properties. Curcumin has been shown to dramatically reduce inflammation in the body, making it just as effective as certain anti-inflammatory drugs but without side effects.
- It’s an antidepressant
Yes, a simple spice may be able to improve your mood.
Similar to Depression is linked to lower levels of BDNF. Because turmeric can boost levels of BDNF, the spice shows promise as an effective antidepressant. According to one small study, curcumin may be as effective as Prozac in relieving the symptoms of mild to moderate depression. It is thought to help boost the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, which affect mood and emotional responses.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the world and is caused by several factors, including diet, genetics, and overall lifestyle. Endothelial dysfunction is a common cause of heart disease. It occurs when the endothelium (the lining of your blood vessels) can no longer regulate blood pressure and clotting. Adding turmeric to your diet could improve the function of your endothelium. Curcumin can boost endothelial function and has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack by as much as 65%.
- It can treat skin issues
Turmeric may be able to provide therapeutic benefits for your skin health. The anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties found in turmeric may be effective for several skin conditions, including eczema, pruritus, facial photoaging, psoriasis, radiodermatitis, alopecia, atopic dermatitis, oral lichen planus, vitiligo, and acne. Researchers noted “statistically significant improvement” in dermatological issues for the curcumin treatment group in comparison to the control group.
- It reduces symptoms of arthritis
In one study, people with osteoarthritis who took a proprietary treatment comprised of a natural curcuminoid mixture experienced significant improvements in stiffness and physical function after nine months.
Also, researchers evaluated three groups of rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. They gave one group 500 milligrams of curcumin, another group diclofenac sodium (50 milligrams), and the third group a combination of the two. They found that the curcumin group had the highest reduction in tenderness and swelling of the joints. “These scores were significantly better than the patients in the diclofenac sodium group. More importantly, curcumin treatment was found to be safe and did not relate with any adverse events,” wrote the study authors.
- It increases cognitive capacity
Alzheimer’s disease has been linked to low levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), an important neurologic growth hormone. It is thought that turmeric can increase levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Several studies have shown that curcumin in turmeric can increase levels of BDNF in the human brain. Additionally, scientists now suspect that curcumin may improve memory and increase cognitive capacity, something we could all use a little more of.
Thank you so much. Very good information.