Turmeric is a hot commodity – and if it’s not for you yet, we’re going to tell you why it should be. It’s definitely grown in popularity and for good reason. It’s got so many health benefits, helps with certain health conditions, and makes so many dishes taste amazing. Probably the most popular use for turmeric is in curries. It adds brilliant flavour, colour, and fragrance to make that curry dish delight your senses and palate. With peppery, warm, bitter notes and a mild fragrance, turmeric has a bright yellow colour and comes from the root of the curcuma longa plant, which has a tough brown skin and deep orange flesh. In fact, if you’ve ever cooked with turmeric, you’ll understand just how vibrant the colour is, because it stays on your hands and cutting board pretty easily.
So we know that it’s delicious and beautiful. But what makes it so healthy? It’s been long used in Chinese and Indian systems of medicine, and it’s time to learn why. We’re going to break down 7 amazing health benefits of turmeric for you, and at the end of the article we’ll give you some great tips and tools on how to incorporate turmeric daily for you to reap all the benefits it has to offer.
• Reduces inflammation
Perhaps one of the best known benefits of turmeric is its anti-inflammatory properties. First of all, what is inflammation? Inflammation can rise in the body for a number of reasons, usually identified as something that’s painful, red, hot, or swollen. Inflammation can be silent and not noticeably painful, but the inflammation is still there and affects our health. Inflammatory mediators are compounds that are produced to try to deal with the injury, but when these compounds don’t go away, it causes chronic inflammation or illness.
The pigment in turmeric comes from curcumin, and curcumin is a powerful anti-inflammatory comparable even to prescribed pain medications or NSAIDs. Whereas most medical anti-inflammatories will work to reduce a couple inflammatory mediators (i.e., the compounds causing the pain), curcumin is effective against a dozen of these compounds, meaning it’s attacking way more of the pain-causing agents than other pain medications, leaving you pain free. It works in all kinds of outward inflammatory conditions from sprained ankles, arthritis, and bursitis to internal inflammatory conditions like neurological disorders, but more on that below. For now, just know that the turmeric can help quell any inflammatory conditions for you.