I’m having a bit of a love affair with turmeric these days. A powerful anti-inflammatory, it’s a beautiful and natural way to bring ease to a body inflamed. I’ve been using it as part of my natural remedy cocktail at the first signs of a migraine and have been loving it so much I’ve been finding ways to sneak it into anything and everything.
Turmeric is an excellent example of how some of the most powerful healing substances are actually in your kitchen, not your medicine cabinet. Here are some of the amazing benefits of turmeric:
- It is very nourishing for the liver, your primary detoxification organ. By supporting your liver, you’re naturally supporting your body’s ability to detoxify. [1]
- It is a powerful anti-inflammatory due largely to the effects of the compound curcumin. [2]
- The curcumin in turmeric has been shown to have a modulating effect on the immune system, which gives it an important role in calming an over-active immune system in autoimmune disease by regulating inflammatory cytokines (our immune system’s messengers).[3]
- It stimulates the production of bile, which has two primary roles in your body: it emulsifies (breaks down) fat so that your body can use it properly and it escorts toxins from your body through the digestive tract. [4][5]
- It has been shown to be very important in fighting cancer. [6]
- It purifies the blood.[7]
As you can see, turmeric is some pretty awesome stuff. Here are six ways to get more of it in your diet:
1) Buy the root whole and juice it along with your greens in your morning green juice. Don’t go too crazy here… a little goes a long way! I’d use a piece about the size of a small thumb. Here’s a compelling story of how doing exactly this – adding a small bit of turmeric to a daily juicing regime – drastically reduced severe inflammation by 90%. You can also put a couple of slices into a smoothie, especially one with coconut milk. Yum!
2) Make a soothing tea. Simply slice up a little turmeric root (you don’t even need to peel it) and add it to some boiling water along with some slices of ginger root, some lemon, and honey. Here are other great recipes for you to try:
- Immune-boosting hot buttered whisky, rum or cider (okay, so it’s not a tea, but how awesome is this?)
- Turmeric Tea Liver Detox
3) If making turmeric tea from scratch is more than you signed up for, you can simply add some liquid turmeric drops to your tea. I learned this trick from my awesome hairdresser who made me a big cup of chai tea with some added turmeric one day when I had a headache. The flavor goes beautifully with the chai or any Indian spiced tea. I’ve now made it a regular addition to my afternoon cup of Roisboos Chai tea.
4) Cook with it. Turmeric is the spice responsible for giving Indian curries their bright yellow/orange hue. Just be careful with your clothing – it does stain. Here are some recipes to get you started:
- Paleo curried beef stew in the slow cooker
- A delicious creamy turmeric sauce recipe from Hollywood Homestead
- A simply gorgeous Persian lamb stew with rhubarb and mint from And Here We Are
5) Drink some golden milk. This could be my new favorite drink. Golden milk is an ayurvedic beverage that is soothing, healing, and a great way to get your daily dose of turmeric. Here’s a recipe my good friend Amanda whipped up for me the other day. This makes one cup – you can multiply the ingredients to make as many servings as you like. Try adding in a little ginger as well. You can drink it warm or cold.
- 1/2 cup coconut milk (you can use any good quality milk you like here)
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 – 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp ghee
- 1 tsp raw honey (or a little more to taste)
Combine ingredients in a pan over medium heat, and whisk to mix well. Once warmed, you can drink it immediately or store a glass jar in the fridge for later. Keeps for 2-3 days.
6) And here’s a bonus I never thought of: bake with it. Check out this wonderful recipe for Paleo Turmeric Scones from Fresh Planet Flavor. I haven’t tried them yet, but what a creative use of a beautiful spice!
What’s your favorite way to use this wonder spice?
[2] Curcumin: A Review of Its’ Effects on Human Health
[3] Curcumin and Autoimmune Disease
[4]Therapeutic potential of curcumin in digestive diseases , [5] Turmeric, the Golden Spice – Herbal Medicine
Love turmeric! What a great post!! And thank you so much for including my liver detox turmeric tea recipe. xoxo, Kelly
This is an awesome post, thank you! Can you recommend a good brand of liquid turmeric? Also, does adding it to tea stain the teacup? Love you and all you share with us, Margaret!!
Golden milk, was surprisingly satisfying!…and easy. Not an everyday drink, but definitely worth putting into rotation. Thanks. New website launch looks great!
I will try this in coconut milk, I think it would be delicious.
Fantastic Post, Thank you! I have read a lot about turmeric when researching alternative cancer therapies, and love putting it into stews, can’t wait to try your beef recipe, and never thought to bake with it, it would go so well in a carrot cake!
I want to know more about turmeric por curcuma
Cant wait to try the Golden Milk. We put Turmerick on our eggs in the morning….scrambled, fried, or omelette. Super tasty!
Yummy!
Where do You get turmeric?????
You can get it at most grocery stores in the spice section. I recommend going with an organic brand. If you’re looking for fresh turmeric root, you’ll find it at some health food stores — Whole Foods sometimes has it (espeically in their bigger stores) and sometimes you can find it at asian markets.
Thanks for the reminder, Margaret! I love working with turmeric. My favorite dish is a nourishing pot of kitchari. Mmmm. For the freshest most ethically sourced ground turmeric, I recommend the brands Diaspora Co and Convivial Spice. Both use single-origin turmeric and work directly with the farmer.
Any more recipes for Tumeric?
Warmwater withchopped u parsley and a squeezedlemon along with half a tspn of turmeric as first thing in the morning is way to go for me.
Another oweskme recipe i found quenching is grated ginger and turmeric boiled togethr n enjoyed as tea with a dash of grounded cinnamon and honey
Does it work as well in a pill form
Depends on the quality of the brand. I prefer to do these food-based supports via food if possible.
Great article. I like turmeric as well and use it in my cooking!
Love these ideas! I will have to share some with my 21-Day Cleanse group to help them naturally detox a bit more!
Hey Margaret, I love this! QQ… I thought you need to have pepper with turmeric to really unleash its magical powers… but I don’t see pepper as an ingredient in the recipes above. Can I really get the benefits of turmeric w/o pepper?
Yes, you’re absolutely right that pepper will enhance absorption – but there are many traditional diets that use turmeric without it. There are other spices that can unlock that same benefit, for example fenugreek will do that same thing. There are likely others that we’re not even aware of yet. I think one of the beautiful things about cooking with medicinal foods in their whole form is that there are synergistic benefits we’re only beginning to understand that traditional cultures have somehow known intuitively for years. So it’s a lovely way to enhance your health via your pantry and dinner. 🙂
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