Cooking with Turmeric, and World’s Healthiest Foods

The link http://tinyurl.com/367cza connects to the World’s Healthiest Foods’ page on turmeric and curcumin. WHF is a non-profit foundation that provides scientifically-accurate information on nutritious foods. This Web page examines the health benefits of curcumin, which are too many to be listed here. However, just to mention a few: curcumin provides relief for rheumatoid arthritis, treats inflammatory bowel disease, and helps prevent childhood leukaemia. It protects against heart disease (I have written about my cholesterol levels in Curcumin Side Effects and Warnings) and Alzheimer’s disease, and improves liver function.

This page also gives some tips on how to store and how to use turmeric (and curcumin powder), and provides the nutritional value of turmeric. I didn’t know that turmeric is an excellent source of iron and manganese, and a good source of vitamin B6, dietary fiber and potassium. Since many MM patients are anaemic, that is a good thing to know!

In general, the WHF website is an excellent and informative resource for healthful foods and recipes. I subscribe to its (free) newsletter, which I highly recommend.

I sprinkle turmeric over my pasta, and add it to bean dishes, frittatas and soups. I recently made oatmeal spice Xmas cookies with turmeric (they turn an interesting yellow). And of course I use it in every Indian dish I make. The WHF website recommends the combination of curcumin and cauliflower. I agree wholeheartedly. To the WHF cauliflower-curcumin cooking suggestion, however, I add whole cloves of garlic and ground flaxseeds. I will be writing more about this soon, and providing my own home-experimented recipes.

3 Comments

  1. Please can you explain to me what is the difference between Turmeric and Curcumin as I was watching the program called This Morning on ITV today and there was a women on it talking about Turmeric and Curcumin helping get her to get better from her Myeloma cancer and it was through your blog that she found about these. I was confused about what they do for cancer and her doctor agreed that all the treatment they had given her had failed so he could not see any other answer for her cure when she was terminal other that she followed what she had learned on your blog. are can’t have any more treatment as I have sarcoma which is a blood cancer that is very rare and would like to know about the Turmeric and Curcumin what they do where do I get them and what is the difference between them also my mum had non hodkins lymphoma so I would like to find a diet that would help her also. thank you for all your help

    1. Anne,

      As you are in the UK (I presume, since you mentioned the tv programme This Morning on ITV), here are some UK-focussed links that will explain turmeric/curcumin:

      In Episode 3, Series 5 of the BBC tv show “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor”, Dr. Michael Mosley and some university staff did an experiment with some volunteers using turmeric/curcumin — taking it in a supplement versus taking it in food (when it’s cooked as part of the dish).

      One might still be able to watch that episode for free via the BBC I-Player — when I watched it on the I-Player about a year ago, the episode was available to view for free (at least to people who have a UK tv licence and who are located in the UK). (That episode may also be on Youtube, I don’t know.)

      Here is the tv programme’s webpage about that episode: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/PSTGKKt3HR08tmK69w7J1b/does-turmeric-really-help-protect-us-from-cancer
      (I think there are some playable clips from the tv show on there.)

      For more information, see the “related links” at the bottom right of that webpage.

      Also, here are 2 other related links referencing Dr. Mosley’s exploration of the health benefits of turmeric/curcumin:

      http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37408293
      (BBC Magazine)

      https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2017/01/27/daily-disease-fighting-ritual-michael-mosley-puts-turmeric-test
      (Australian site that he worked with)

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