Kristin A. Siano
Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine..” When it comes to turmeric, how far can we take this? These days, if you were to do a quick internet search or peruse your grocery store’s vitamin and supplement aisle, you may think that you could take it pretty far – its health benefits are touted everywhere we go.
Turmeric is a rhizome (a root that grows horizontally) from the ginger family. It is native to Southeast Asia and has been used in recipes and traditional Indian medicine for centuries. It is most often found in its dried and ground form, but one can occasionally find the fresh rhizomes, looking like ginger root’s petite orange cousin, in health food or specialty stores.
Personally, I tend to assume that if something has been used for its health benefits for centuries, then there has to be something to it, but assuming something is not good science. Fortunately, scientists have been researching turmeric for decades and have started to sort it all out for us.
Turmeric does have some nutritional benefits; one tablespoon of its vibrant golden powder offers 2 grams of fiber and about 15% of adults’ daily recommended intake of iron. Beyond nutrition, curcumin, the active compound in turmeric, is the source of turmeric’s health effects. While more studies are required, there are three main areas where researchers have found promising evidence for its use beyond delicious curry recipes. The first area of promise is inflammation. Evidence suggests that the curcumin present in turmeric has been effective in reducing pain and swelling in people with arthritis-related inflammation, as well as decreasing certain indicators of inflammation in the blood. There is also early evidence that curcumin may reduce inflammation related to inflammatory bowel diseases. The second area of promise is cardiovascular disease risk. While researchers stress that well-designed, long-term studies have yet to allow definitive conclusions, there is promising preliminary evidence that curcumin may have the ability to reduce blood lipid levels. Lastly, due to its antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, oral intake of curcumin may have beneficial effects on certain skin conditions such as eczema and acne, but don’t smear it all over your skin, it stains!
While we should not rush to clean out our medicine cabinets and re-stock them with jars of turmeric and curcumin preparations, future research may uncover distinct medical uses for it. For now, as in centuries past, turmeric has a rightful place in a nutritious diet.
Sources
Pagano, Ester, et al. “The Clinical Efficacy of Curcumin-Containing Nutraceuticals: An Overview of Systematic Reviews.” Pharmacological Research, vol. 134, 2018, pp. 79–91., doi:10.1016/j.phrs.2018.06.007.
USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Legacy Release. Retrieved from https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/292?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=02043&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=
Photo credit: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-turmeric
Kristin A. Siano is a student in the Dietitian Education Program at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, N.Y.
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