How to Use Turmeric Daily

healthy eating

Turmeric is a root similar to the ginger root. It has a beautiful golden color and a wide variety of health benefits but most of them require you to eat turmeric in large quantities making it quite difficult to accomplish. Here are the ways you can eat turmeric in nearly every meal so you can reap the health benefits of this root. Skip to the bottom for my Cocoa-meric recipe (hot cocoa plus turmeric...you can never have too many healthy, superfood chocolate recipes!!) 

Cooking With Turmeric

Turmeric is found in Indian dishes quite often. It adds a vibrant yellow color to the foods it is mixed with and makes a great natural dye for homemade silks and decorative eggs. The Indian dishes call for turmeric for culinary reasons but also for health benefits. They understood the medicinal properties of the root and were able to easily incorporate it into all of their dishes. If you want the health benefits of turmeric, you’ll want to do the same. While I do love Indian food, I’m not sure my family wants to switch to an Indian-food-only diet just to get the benefits of turmeric root. Instead, I sneak it into dishes in as large of measurements as possible without compromising the flavors. I think you will be amazed at all the foods I dose with turmeric.

Health Benefits of Turmeric

Many blog posts and other publications cite curcumin as the main antioxidant and feature of turmeric that makes it a powerful health food. However, my research suggests the amount of curcumin in turmeric, at least in typical culinary doses, is quite small and would have very little benefit. I suppose this means you can take turmeric capsules in high doses but would your body absorb all of it? What might the ill effects of that be? Some natural health gurus suggest taking the high doses with peppercorns. This sounds a bit far-fetched to me and not like something my family would participate in. That does not mean I don’t try to eat turmeric in every meal.

Take a look at the list of health benefits backed by actual research and tell me you aren't convinced you should eat turmeric at every meal:

  • Longer life
  • Improved liver function and potential repair
  • Potent antifungal properties
  • Slow the growth and even kill cancer cells
  • Improve mental function and memory
  • Inflammation and pain reducer
  • Improve skin and reduce signs of aging

Most dosing guidelines seem to fall around ¾ tsp of turmeric root per day. This would be approximately 450 mg if you purchase capsules. That is a lot of turmeric. Most of the dishes I make call for about that much overall, but that is in a multi-serving dish.

How Can You Eat Turmeric for Health Benefits?

Well, I’ve found that it blends in well in just about anything, thankfully! Here are the meals or recipes we have added turmeric to without compromising flavor:

  • ¼ tsp turmeric in our daily green smoothie (per serving)
  • ½-¾ tsp in all homemade salad dressings, including homemade ranch, balsamic vinaigrette, Marriage proposal dipping sauce and honey mustard
  • ½-¾ tsp in all chia porridge or puddings (including chocolate avocado pudding)
  • hot chocolate
  • All soups, stews, casseroles can handle ¾ tsp of turmeric quite easily
  • Add turmeric into your salt pinch bowl for cooking meals--simply mix in several teaspoons of turmeric. You want the salt to be very pale yellow so it is more salt than turmeric. Just add salt to your meals from the pinch bowl as you normally would and the turmeric will make its way into the dish.
  • Mix turmeric into your salt pinch bowl and add it to every dish.

I have found the root to give off less of a dingy yellow hue than the powder. When available, I do buy the turmeric root fresh but I don’t shop at stores that have this on hand often so powder is my main source.

Smoothies, soups, Indian dishes and tea all taste great with fresh, grated turmeric root.  All other foods do better with powdered to maintain the smooth texture of the finished product.

Where to Buy Turmeric Root

There is really only one place we buy our Turmeric powder right now and that is the Health Ranger Store.  Mountain Rose herbs and Frontier Herbs Co-op when the local group puts in a bulk order are two options we have used in the past. Mountain Rose has capsules and such as well if you are in need of therapeutic levels of turmeric. The Health Ranger Store has Turmeric gummies too! How wonderful is it that you can get the health benefits from a food item if you really need them?  Fresh turmeric root is sometimes hard to find at the market. It is something I am looking into growing myself in the garden!

Hot Cocoa-Meric Recipe

1 TB gelatin collagen (not the solid forming kind)
1 C milk of choice (we like coconut the best but cashew or almond work well)
1 TB cocoa powder or raw cacao
1 TB turmeric
1 TB honey or maple syrup
1 TB butter or coconut oil or ghee

  • Pour ¼ C of the milk into your mug and sprinkle the gelatin over it. Let sit while heating the rest of the milk on the stove in a small pan.
  • Add the cocoa powder,  turmeric, and honey/maple syrup as the milk starts to steam.
  • As soon as the first bubble appears, remove from heat and pour into the gelatin and milk mix.
  • Drop in your 1 TB of fat and blend with an immersion blender or pour into the blender and pulse 1-2 times.

Turmeric Natural Home Remedies

To get your Turmeric Natural Home Remedies card to help you keep the uses and benefits of turmeric root close at hand, just click here to request access to our Community Library. This free library holds all of our best tools and resources!

 

Turmeric Root Resources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25159739

http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/the-amazing-health-benefits-of-turmeric

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-662-turmeric.aspx?activeingredientid=662

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