Who doesn’t want to be that little bit healthier? Especially if improving your health involves minimal effort. With this in mind we’ve made it our mission to bring you news each week of a product, a foodstuff, an exercise technique or a pill that promises potentially magical health-giving properties.
This week’s magic ingredient: Turmeric
Not to be confused with: Numeric, Tunatic (music identification software), Turkmenistan (a country in Central Asia).
Turmeric. I’ve heard of that thing. Remind me? Turmeric is a plant from the ginger family (and we don’t mean Chris Evan and his Mam and Dad), native to tropical South East Asia. Its rhizomes are cut off. . .
Rhizomes? What the hell are rhizomes? It’s just a fancy word for plant stem. So anyway, its stems are cut off and then dried in hot ovens after being boiled for several hours. After that, they are ground down into a kind of orangey yellow powder.
What’s this orangey yellow powder used for then? It’s commonly used as a spice in Indian food such as curries.
What does it smell like? Mustard.
Mustard? Yeah, mustard.
Is it nice? It’s quite nice actually. The main ingredient of turmeric is curcumin, and that has a kind of hot peppery flavour.
It’s a little bitter but not too bitter. If you’ve ever had a curry in the local Indian, you’ve probably tasted it.
So what makes it so great? What are its health benefits? It has loads of them. Curcumin’s anti-inflammatory properties help fight a range of health problems, including arthritis and bowel conditions like Crohn’s disease.
Current investigations have shown that turmeric may prevent people from getting multiple myeloma, pancreatic cancer, myelodysplastic syndromes, colon cancer, psoriasis, and Alzheimer’s disease.
In addition it may be effective in treating malaria, prevention of cervical cancer, and may interfere with the replication of the HIV virus.
It’s good to know as I’m tucking into my curry takeaway that it’s actually a health food. Turmeric is certainly very healthy, and that goes on the curry. As for the rest of the curry, it obviously depends on how it is cooked, and how much fat and grease are in it.
Anything else I should know about Turmeric? Yeah, in South Asia it’s used as an antiseptic for cuts and burns and bruises. It is also used as a dye and a food colouring, Turmeric is used as an ingredient in sunscreens, and in Japan they drink it as a tea. It’s kind of a renaissance powder.
Where can I find it? You can buy Turmeric Powder at most grocery stores in the spice section.
Conor Hogan
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