To Turmeric or Not To Turmeric

Turmeric, a tasty spice often encountered in Thai and Indian foods, has achieved an almost legendary status as a superfood with impressive nutritional and health benefits. It is widely touted as a powerful anti-inflammatory and beneficial to people with arthritis, heart and circulatory problems. Like its botanical cousin, ginger, it us reputed to be helpful with gastrointestinal disorders. These days the spice is added to all sorts of foods, and people are paying out big money for organic and "enhanced" versions.

Is there any scientific backing for these benefit claims? According to Prevention Magazine some, but not much.

Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric responsible for most of its claimed health benefits. It is both an anti-inflammatory agent and an anti-coagulant. With inflammation being at the root of so many of the health issues we face here in the USA, one might think that curcumin has potential. It does.

But according to Mary Beth Sodus, a nutritionist at the University of Maryland Medical Center, turmeric contains only about 3% curcumin. This means that unless you have a cast iron stomach you would never be able to consume enough turmeric to get a therapeutic dose of curcumin.

This is often how marketing works in the food and nutrition industries. Add trace amounts of a beneficial substance and then tout the health benefits of your product. With turmeric, the trace amounts are already added, so claim away!

If you enjoy turmeric by all means use it. But don't expect much in the way of health benefits.