If you want Superfoods, you'll fall in love with Turmeric!
Turmeric isn't often used in the West but its popularity is growing fast, and with good reason. In the East, the medical properties of turmeric have been known for a long time and it's used in Indian and Chineese medicine.
So why are people so excited with Turmeric?
Does it deserve its place in our SuperFood wall of fame ? Let's find out and take a look at 7 reasons you need to be adding Turmeric to your diet…
1. Turmeric can lower your cholesterol levels
The active ingredient in turmeric that's responsible for all of its extraordinary benefits to health is curcumin. Curcumin helps to reduce your cholesterol level in 3 very powerful ways. First, it boosts the efficiency of LDL cholesterol by increasing the receptors. Second, it inhibits the oxidation of LDL cholesterol and third, it lowers the time that cholesterol spends in the blood stream. All of which leads to greatly improved cardiovascular health.
2. Lessen the pain from (and the spread of) arthritis
During tests, the curcumin in turmeric was found to be as effective as traditional anti-inflammatory medicine for joint stiffness and swelling. Incorporating turmeric to your food plan can lead to a major impact on the quality of your life, especially if you sufferer with rheumatoid arthritis. Furthermore, the antioxidant properties found in curcumin help eliminate free radicals from the body. Free radicals are very problematic for people with arthritis because they cause damage to cell membranes which is one of the main causes of joint pain.
3. Maintains healthy thyroid function
Thyroid complications are very commonplace in todays society and can trigger all manor of issues, including weight gain, dry skin, thinning hair, numbness or tingling in the hands brittle nails, and even constipation. . Turmeric is packed with Manganese and helps you to make a great step towards a better functioning thyroid. Given the amount of symptoms (and we only touched on a few, there are many many more) that are due to a poorly functioning thyroid, its a very good idea for you health, well-being and future medical expenses to start adding turmeric to your diet.
4. Reduce inflammation and pain
When compared to traditional medical anti-inflammatories, curcumin wins hands down. The compounds that produce pain during inflammation are called mediators, and they don't hunt alone! Most traditional anti-inflammatories or NSAIDs only target a couple of these mediators but curcumin targets dozens! The result… more efficient, all-natural and total pain release, and non of the terrible side affects linked with ordinary treatments!
5. (Very possibly) Enhances your memory and helps make you wiser!
A food that could make you intelligent ? I don't think anything can make a food more worthy of the esteemed title of 'SuperFood' than its capacity to boost your intelligence.
Curcumin boosts brain functioning and decreases the risk of brain disease by promoting the neurotrophic factor. As we grow, neurons form new connections and our potential to learn and remember more information increases. The hormone that supports this process is called the brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF). Decreased levels of this hormone are linked to many widespread brain disorders, such as Alzheimers and depression.
Curcumin increases BDNF levels, which can help our brains do what they are intended to do… grow, understand more things and make us more intelligent, although more research is needed to verify that we actually do become more intelligent. An increase of BDNF could also stop, and probably even reverse, the affects of several age-related brain functioning difficulties.
6. Can help to prevent, and potential even treat, cancer
During laboratory tests on animals, curcumin was shown to help reduce metastasis (the spread of cancer) reduce angiogenesis (the growth of blood vessels in tumors) and even kill cancerous cells. During a further study (this time on humans) curcumin reduced colon lesions in 44 men by 40% over a period of 30 days. Although this study wasn't on men actually suffering from cancer, colon lesions can become cancerous, so it's a significant indication that curcumin may well help protect against cancer.
7. A natural beauty treatment
So far we've highlighted some of the remarkable health benefits of turmeric, but did you know it can make you more attractive as well!
For centuries women in Asia have been using turmeric as a natural beauty treatment. Its powerful beautifying properties have been praised for their ability to reduce acne, treat eczema, reduce dark circles from under the eyes, decrease the appearance of signs of aging, reduce scarring and even remove sun spots.