Turmeric is a real superfood!
Lately, food has been coming up for discussion over and over again, giving it the status of “superfood”. Superfood is generally referred to like foods that stand out from others thanks to their particularly high nutritional content. Why did turmeric (more than) earn this status?

What is turmeric?
Turmeric looks a bit like ginger, but it is intense yellow/orange. Also called yellow ginger, it has been revered as a sacred plant in India and generally Southeast Asia for more than 5,000 years. The traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and the Indian healing Ayurveda swear by the medicinal plant.
What makes turmeric so special is curcumin. Curcumin as an ingredient has it all!
Various studies have shown that curcumin is pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory, detoxifying and digestive. Also, the cholesterol level can be lowered with the help of turmeric. There is even evidence that curcumin can inhibit the growth of malignant cells such as cancer. But not only curcumin is worth it but also a lot of essential oils, which bring more health-promoting qualities. It sounds like a nice power pack!

How to use turmeric
I must confess that I can no longer abstain from turmeric in my kitchen. The fresh root has a light burning taste reminiscent of ginger. Dried and ground, turmeric tastes a little bit bitter and is an essential part of many curry powders. Because of its strong yellowing effect, it is often found in mustard.
Personally, I love to use ground turmeric as a spice for vegetables, curries, or fried tofu – a treat for me! You should really try my chia-buckwheat bread with turmeric as well! I also discovered a love for golden milk or turmeric latte. Of course, I do not want to deprive you of the recipe for that. It is really easy and just in winter balm for the soul.

Equipment
- pot
- milk frother
Ingredients
- 500 ml oat milk or almond/soy milk
- ½ tsp turmeric ground
- ½ tsp ginger ground
- ¼ tsp cinnamon ground
- ¼ tsp pepper ground
- some stevia, xylitol or erythritol for sweetening if needed
Instructions
- Heat the milk in a small pot for 2-3 minutes. It should not cook.
- Add the remaining ingredients and froth the milk – done!
Nutrients
Always use pepper with turmeric!
Actually, don’t need to add pepper but pepper boosts the absorption of curcumin – so, don’t miss it! Ideal for the turmeric latte/golden milk is my new favorite food processor: a milk frother. Here I just throw everything in at once and the machine does the rest. Sometimes the turmeric latte also comes with a dash of espresso or some soluble coffee, which I also add to the milk frother – a dream!
Have you already discovered turmeric for you or have you ever had golden milk? Are you just as infected as me? O:) Did you try my other recipes as well?
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Here’s the scientific evidence for this blog post
Anand, P./Sundaram, C./Jhurani, S./Kunnamakkara, A. B./Aggarwal, B. B. 2008: Curcumin and cancer: an „old-age“ disease with an „age-old“ solution, in: Cancer Letters, Vol. 267, 2008, No. 1, pp. 133-164.
Bengmark, S./Mesa, M. D./Gil, A. 2009: Plant-derived health: the effects of turmeric and curcuminoids, in: Nutrition Hospitalaria, Vol. 24, 2009, No. 3, pp. 273-281.
http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0212-16112009000300003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
Gupta, S. C./Sung, B./Kim, J. H./Prasad, S./Li, S.Aggarwal, B. B. 2013: Mulittargeting by turmeric, the golden spice: From kitchen to clinic, in: Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, Vol. 57, 2013, No. 9, pp. 1310-1528.
Kim, J. H./Gupta, S. C./Park, B./Yadav, V. R./Aggarwal, B. B. 2012: Turmeric (Curcuma longa) inhibits inflammatory nuclear factor (NF)-κB and NF-κB-regulated gene products and induces death receptors leading to suppressed proliferation, induced chemosensitization, and suppressed osteoclastogenesis, in: Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, Vol. 56, 2012, No. 3, pp. 454-465.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3392043/
Shehzad, A./Lee, J./Lee, Y. S. 2013: Curcumin in various cancers, in: BioFactors, Vol. 39, 2013, No. 1, pp. 56-68.

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