Turmeric

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Ego
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Turmeric

Post by Ego »

Turmeric has a number of significant health benefits. I thought I'd start a thread where we can keep up with the latest studies.

Here are two studies showing the remarkable influence turmeric has on arterial function.

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/heart-o ... -exercise/

It can be a challenge for non-Indians to ingest enough of the spice on a daily basis to make a difference to health. Throughout the day I drink a green/white tea concoction that includes a pinch of turmeric and a pinch of black pepper.

How do you get turmeric into your body?

slsdly
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Re: Turmeric

Post by slsdly »

I make west indies roti which uses a fair bit.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emer ... ecipe.html

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jennypenny
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Re: Turmeric

Post by jennypenny »

My favorite way of getting turmeric into my body is Singapore noodles. I love me some spicy Singapore noodles with extra curry and red pepper. :D

I also like sauteed chick peas and spinach. Heat oil of choice in a pan (pretty high), and toss in chick peas. Season them with sea salt (or regular), garlic, turmeric, and a splash of cumin or nutmeg if you have it on hand (can be left out if they aren't your thing). Add the spinach when the chick peas are done to your liking and cover for a minute. Yum.

Chad
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Re: Turmeric

Post by Chad »

I never knew about the health benefits until last year. I don't cook with it a ton, but I do supplement turmeric/piperine. That's a nice short video with a lot of information.

Dragline
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Re: Turmeric

Post by Dragline »

Cooked with scrambled eggs.

But how much do you need? This has never been really clear to me and I honestly don't notice that it does anything in particular for me.

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Ego
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Re: Turmeric

Post by Ego »

Dragline wrote: But how much do you need?
About a teaspoon, with some caveats.

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/who-sho ... -turmeric/

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jennypenny
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Re: Turmeric

Post by jennypenny »

Ego wrote:About a teaspoon, with some caveats.
Eating citrus after the meal (an orange or tea w/fresh lemon) counteracts most of the negative effects. It's a good idea to eat an orange or something similar at the end of the meal anyway for lots of other health reasons.

Did
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Re: Turmeric

Post by Did »

I eat in a capsule form. I'm influenced by Grain Brain, and the 7 super supplements recommendations.

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C40
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Re: Turmeric

Post by C40 »

I drink this tea, sometimes daily:
http://www.rishi-tea.com/product/turmer ... ree-herbal

A teaspoon? Shit - that is a LOT!

DSKla
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Re: Turmeric

Post by DSKla »

My only concern with things like turmeric and oregano, which people also take as a supplement, is that the reason they do good things for some people could have a negative effect on others: they're very effective natural antibiotics. So if you have a bacterial infection that they are known to help with, or something like SIBO, I can see them being helpful. However, if you already eat a pretty healthy diet and you take care of your gut biome with a variety of fermented foods or probiotics, taking an antibiotic on a daily basis is going to be counterproductive. Like filling up a pitcher while you pour it out.

If you look at the cultures where spicy antibiotics are extremely common in food, they're the ones that are in warmer, wetter, more bacteria-friendly climates. So maybe eating regular antibiotics is very beneficial to the people of India and Central America because of their increased exposure to potential infections. (I fully understand it also has to do with the fact that these regions are where it's easiest to cultivate the peppers and spices.)

Meanwhile, plenty of human beings have managed to evolve entirely without things like turmeric, oregano, and cayenne. So I would say take it if you have a reason, but for example, if you have Northern European ancestry, live well above the equator, and have a decently effective gut biome, things like turmeric might be best used only to fight off a specific infection the way that you take pharmaceutical antibiotics only when you need them, and then stop.

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Re: Turmeric

Post by jacob »

Ego wrote: About a teaspoon, with some caveats.
Per serving (day/person)?

That would take some getting some getting used to. Turmeric is one of those spices that can ruin [the taste of] a meal if overdosed. A teaspoon would be rather "bitter".

Did
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Re: Turmeric

Post by Did »

I do not profess to know the whys of it, but as I understand it, it is the anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric that is doing good under current thinking, not the anti-bacterial. Of course, this may be incorrect. I trust the Brain Grain guy, and he seems to keep up with the studies as best he can.....

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Ego
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Re: Turmeric

Post by Ego »

C40 wrote: A teaspoon? Shit - that is a LOT!
jacob wrote: That would take some getting some getting used to. Turmeric is one of those spices that can ruin [the taste of] a meal if overdosed. A teaspoon would be rather "bitter".
Yeah, that's why I've been putting it in my tea. I don't drink water at all, so just about all of my fluid intake is green/white tea with turmeric, pepper and a few other things mixed into a klean kanteen. It takes some getting used to.

When we're at home I mix fresh turmeric into my green smoothie. Man do I miss my Vitamix.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3338
DSKla wrote:However, if you already eat a pretty healthy diet and you take care of your gut biome with a variety of fermented foods or probiotics, taking an antibiotic on a daily basis is going to be counterproductive. Like filling up a pitcher while you pour it out.
With microbiome, more bacteria in the gut is not necessarily better. The ideal is a wide variety (diversity) of bacteria. I believe that PRE-biotics are more important than PRO-biotics. Interestingly, garlic has strong antibacterial properties but is one of the best prebiotics.

Also, turmeric, oregano, basil, rosemary and ginger are all quorum sensing inhibitors. They inhibit pathogenic bacteria like e-coli from forming biofilms in the gut. Biofilms are like little fortresses for the pathogenic bacteria.

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Ego
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Re: Turmeric

Post by Ego »

Hum, in the notes for this video NutritionFacts recommends a quarter teaspoon per day.

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/turmeri ... e-myeloma/

I read a teaspoon elsewhere.

YMMV

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Sclass
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Re: Turmeric

Post by Sclass »

I love Indian curries. Living in Silicon Valley was great because of all the wonderful inexpensive Indian restaurants. I'm now eating trader joes channa masala bought in Laguna Beach and defrosted in my microwave. Indian food is exotic in these parts and comes with the $$$ symbol on yelp.

I have had two kidney stones in the last twenty years. I read this recently and it really alarmed me.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/87/5/1262.full

I DGAS. I still eat it because I love it. I drink a liter of water after a meal of curry to keep flushing the renal system.

Chad
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Re: Turmeric

Post by Chad »

@Sclass
Interesting study. I did not know about the oxalate connection with turmeric. So, based on the high levels of turmeric in Indian food I did a brief search on the propensity of Indian's having kidney stones. This is what I found:

http://www.thehealthsite.com/diseases-c ... ert-speak/


http://www.indiatimes.com/health/health ... 40038.html


http://www.dailynews.com/20120825/why-a ... ney-stones

Americans (8.8%) get kidney stones at a much higher rate than Indians (1.17% - Note: I doubled the reported top amount from the article, as many cases are probably not reported in India.). The rate of kidney stones in Indian children is on the rise, but I would imagine the cause is probably from a modern diet than from more curry. It's not like curry hasn't been around in India for ages. So, I'm not hugely concerned after this brief research foray. While, the report noted a higher oxalate count with Turmeric, it seems like it might only be a problem if you already have a bad diet or are predisposed to getting kidney stones. Obviously, this is observational and based on very thin research, as I didn't find any studies that tested this directly and only spent 20 minutes on the research.

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Sclass
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Re: Turmeric

Post by Sclass »

Good cross checking Chad. I will chow down on massala fearlessly! :D

Edit - in my personal experience, I had two bouts of stones in 46 years. Throughout the time I had regularly eaten turmeric in Indian curry. My suspicion is I spent summer 2013 outdoors sweating like a pig and ignoring my thirst. CAT scans, MRIs, ultrasound prior to that summer showed no stones. Then boom, I had three.

Oxalate is in turmeric. Calcium oxalate is the most common stone. Therefore turmeric causes stones. :roll: So much science is done this way. Sigh.

JasonR
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Re: Turmeric

Post by JasonR »

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JasonR
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Re: Turmeric

Post by JasonR »

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KevinW
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Re: Turmeric

Post by KevinW »

Sclass wrote:Indian food is exotic in these parts and comes with the $$$ symbol on yelp.
Check out the Natraj restaurants (http://www.natrajusa.com), Indian food stalls inside the Persian supermarkets, or Little India in Artesia. There's a decent cheap restaurant in downtown Anaheim and another in Fullerton on Chapman Ave.

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