Inflammation is said to be the root cause of most. if not all, ailments.
Everything begins and worsens with certain degrees of inflammation. Whether it’s as simple as a sore throat or a serious illness that may need you to be supervised.
Surprisingly the solution is quite simple & not far from where you are. Just a walk to the kitchen is what you need.
Turmeric!
I can harp on about this miraculous spice girl on and on and ON and it won’t be enough. If I could, I’d force feed everyone some turmeric multiple times a day. However do bear in mind that it’s a little heavy handed in terms of heat and can actually end up giving you a headache if you have too much of it. Like they say, too much of a good thing …
Turmeric naturally contains this superhero drug called Curcumin. Though only 3%, it is naturally a very potent chemical compound and helps TONS with health.
It not only improves skin and lowers cholesterol, it is a natural anti inflammatory. What WHAAAT?
Here’s a lowdown of some stuff it does.
1. As already shared, Curcumin can inhibit many molecules that are known to play a significant role in reducing inflammation.
2. It not only has very strong antioxidant properties itself, it also stimulates your body’s own antioxidant enzymes. So a catalysis of catalysts!
3. Curcumin boosts BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor) which is directly linked to reducing the risk of Brain diseases as well as probably also linked to improving brain function to some extent. Guess it’s time you replace them sugar laden supplements with some turmeric laced golden milk!
4. Heart disease and its causes are as complicated as a sack of fine noodles. However, there are things that your common turmeric can help with.
Curcumin May help reverse plenty of steps in heart disease progression.
5. It is also quite well known to help with depression and in a controlled test environment 60 patients using Curcumin showed similar improvement to that of Prozac users. Ain’t that a keeper now?
6 On similar lines Curcumin is known to deal with ageing and age related chronic diseases REALLY well. So here you go, your youth elixir is hiding in your spice cabinet!
7. Since Curcumin directly attacks inflammation, Arthritis, having more to do with joint inflammation has responded remarkably well to Turmeric and Curcumin.
8. Curcumin is able to cross blood-brain barrier& has been shown to lead to remarkable improvement in the process of Alzheimer’s disease.
Golden milk is something I have been having for years now. It’s really nothing. Just add the following to a cup of milk (or even just hot water if you don’t like milk) and bring it to a boil. Then just drink up.
A pinch upto half a teaspoon of turmeric (depending on how much is palatable for you)
One Star anise
One piece of Cinnamon bark or a pinch of cinnamon powder
A fat pinch of Fennel seeds (Optional)
A fat pinch of Ginger Powder (Optional)
Raw Brown Sugar/ Jaggery/ Demerara (TOTALLY optional)
A dash of Vanilla essence or a pinch of vanilla beans scraping. (COMPLETELY optional)
That’s pretty much it. Takes minutes. If you want to replace Sugar with Honey then Make sure you add honey when the milk has slightly cooled down from the boiling point. Always add honey Off heat and to a warm cuppa instead of scalding hot.
Note for Breastfeeding Mamas: This makes an. EXCELLENT supplement if you add a tempering of cardamom powder, nuts of your choice and desiccated coconut in Ghee (clarified butter). I SWEAR by it.
Voila!
As you can see, there so many optionals that go in there you can really experiment to find the taste of your choice and stick with your own version. Isn’t that a cool customisation option? Make it your own! I know I do.
F has had Lyme Disease when he was younger. Which is why we actively try to avoid any chance of inflammation or any food that causes it.
He recently hit his toe somewhere and for over a week the inflammation kept growing instead of reducing.
Last year we tried this Smoothie during Ramzaan that helped keep his inflammation tendency at bay. I just whipped out the ingredients again and put together this concoction.
We don’t have any bananas at home so skipped that. Also replaced the almond, soy or coconut milk with regular milk.
Still. I kid you not. Despite the tweaking and instead of stocking my pantry I cut down on the recipe, F’s swelling/ inflammation has considerably gone down in just three days.
Don’t have it more than once a day. Turmeric is a little heavy handed.
1. Half a Sindhri or one plump Dassehri/ Anver Ratol. (Medium sized mango. 2 cups pulp.)
2. A frozen banana
3. 1tsp Turmeric Powder
4. 1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder
5. 200-250ml Milk (figure according to the thickness you need on the smoothie.)
6. A few drops Vanilla essence
7. A tblsp of Coconut oil.
Cut up the fruits and to them add the spices, coconut oil and vanilla essence.
Top it up with the milk of your choice and whizz it up in the blender.
It tastes great and is miraculous with inflammation!
Give it a shot.
