Lately I’ve been mentioning this wonder spice a lot more frequently for pain of any kind, whether muscular, or joint, or gut, or even period pain; because it’s just so darn good at bringing relief.
It’s naturally an anti – inflammatory which is why it has pain relieving effects. Research shows its good even for rheumatoid arthritis, and considering the number of young people who are being diagnosed with that, that’s good to know.
You’ll also find it’s good for stomach upset, whether nausea and indigestion, or something much more painful like for IBS or even Crohns and ulcerative colitis. It can also help relieve diarrhoea and works to bring down high cholesterol, probably because it’s just so good for liver health.
As a hot tea, it’s known to help with fever, the common cold and a catarrhal cough.
Now there are some cases when you’re best to not use curcumin in high doses (remember that’s the key extract found in turmeric) and that mightbe those who are already on anti platelet or anti coagulant drugs. Curcumin has a slight blood thinning effect so it might amp up the drugs too much. If you have gallstones, some sources say you may not be able to use curcumin in high doses, although some research finds it could actually be helpful. So just be cautious with that.
Cooling
Mango Lassi
1-1 ½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp of dried ginger powder (or more, to taste)
3 turns of freshly ground pepper
1 cup coconut yoghurt or coconut milk or Greek yoghurt
1 large ripe mango OR 1 – 1 ½ cup of frozen mango chunks
1 banana (optional- makes a creamier tasting drink)
Adapted from: https://wanderlust.com/journal/recipe-simple-fresh-turmeric-ginger-mango-lassi/
Soothing
Turmeric Tea.
1/3 cup / 80 ml good, raw honey
2 1/2 teaspoons dried turmeric
lemon*
lots of freshly ground black pepper
Work the turmeric into the honey until it forms a paste. You can keep this on hand, in a jar, for whenever you’d like a cup.
For each cup of tea, place a heaping teaspoon of the turmeric paste in the bottom of a mug. Pour hot (but not boiling water) into the mug, and stir well to dissolve the turmeric paste. Add a big squeeze of juice from a lemon, and a good amount of black pepper. Enjoy! Stir now and then as you drink so all the good stuff doesn’t settle to the bottom, or top off with more hot water as you drink it.
Tips:
- Be sure to add the black pepper as it improves absorption of turmeric.
- Use hot water rather than boiling to help preserve the properties of the honey. Raw honey has anti bacterial and anti fungal properties so is ideal for bringing balance to the digestive system.
Just remember, turmeric powder stains easily so be careful with it!
Recipe from: https://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/turmeric-tea-recipe.html
