Tumeric has been in the news a lot lately and I’ve been looking for new ways to incorporate it into my diet. As with most healthy “fads” you have to take the hype with a grain of salt. Annecdotally, tumeric is a cure-all. I’m not sure we have had well-designed studies to support the annecdotal claims, but it seems that very few herbs have good studies that examine their benefits.
The benefit that interests me most it that it seems to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. At least we think it does–cultures that consume tumeric as part of their daily diet have much lower levels of Alzheimer’s disease
We use tumeric in our Chinese herbal pharmacopeia for it’s blood- and qi-moving properties. As we age our qi and blood tend to become more stagnant, so keeping things moving can keep us well as we age.
In my kitchen I usually make one Indian curry every week so I think we usually eat tumeric 2-3 times per week. I’ve also been experimenting with making my own Thai curry paste, which uses fresh tumeric root (and is magically delicious!).
‘m always looking for more ways to incorporate more tumeric into my diet and I came across this recipe for Spiced Golden Tumeric Milk. I like that you can use any type of “milk” for her recipe–not all of us want to drink cow milk, but I think this will be delicious with coconut milk.
For even more ideas on using tumeric check out this article at Well + Good.