Today, I continue my Breast Cancer Awareness Month series with a look at turmeric, another food with cancer-fighting properties. Just a daily teaspoon of this golden spice could reduce your risk of cancer.
If you love Indian food, you’re probably already getting your daily dose of turmeric. If not, read on to learn about turmeric, how it fights cancer, and 7 easy ways you can sneak this fragrant spice into your diet.
This post was originally published in October 2020 and updated in August 2023.
Like the other foods in You need these cancer-fighting foods in your diet, I learned of the health benefits of turmeric in the book Foods That Fight Cancer, written by Richard Béliveau and Denis Gingras, two researchers from Montreal. I highly recommend this fascinating read.
What is turmeric?
Turmeric is a bright yellow powder that comes from the stalks of the Curcuma longa plant. Curcuma longa is a perennial shrub primarily found in India and Indonesia.
Historically, turmeric has held an important place in Indian social, cultural and medicinal traditions. It’s a staple of India’s diet. In fact, the average Indian consumes one-quarter to one-half a teaspoon of turmeric a day.
Interestingly, in western culture, we valued turmeric more for its colour than its taste. We historically used it as a dye. Do you know what gives the bright yellow colour to North American prepared mustard? You guessed it – turmeric! But, you’d need to eat about four kilograms of mustard a day to realize any health benefits.
The health benefits of turmeric
Ayurvedic traditional medicine values turmeric for its cleansing and purifying properties. Among other things, Ayurvedic medicine uses turmeric to treat digestive disorders, fever, infections and arthritis.
Scientists believe turmeric may be at the root of a huge difference in rates of several kinds of cancer between India and the United States, including lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer.
Experts attribute the health benefits of turmeric to its active ingredient, curcumin. Curcumin has antioxidant properties, meaning it reduces swelling and inflammation. In laboratory studies, curcumin prevents tumours from developing and can slow the growth of existing tumours.
Additionally, in recent news out of Washington State University, curcumin has been shown to be very effective in the treatment of bone cancer.
An important caution, turmeric supplements may interfere with some medications, including some chemotherapy drugs. As always, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor before using any herbal supplements.
One of the drawbacks of turmeric is its low bioavailability. Bioavailability is the extent to which it can be absorbed into the bloodstream. Combining turmeric with pepper increases the absorption of turmeric by a factor of 1,000.
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7 ways to sneak turmeric into your diet
If you’re not a fan of Indian food, there’s good news. It’s easy to sneak turmeric into many of the foods you eat every day. Here are 7 simple things you can do to get your daily dose of turmeric. Just remember to add a dash of pepper to maximize the absorption of curcumin.
- Add a quarter teaspoon of turmeric to your breakfast smoothie. After you add the other delicious ingredients, you won’t notice the taste.
- Put a half teaspoon, and a dash of pepper, in your soup or stew.
- Stir it into your scrambled eggs or omelettes.
- Add turmeric to homemade hummus or other dips.
- Sprinkle it on your cooked veggies or add it to your stir-fry when cooking. Heck, I even read that you can use turmeric to season popcorn so get creative!
- Give flavour to your rice by adding turmeric to the water when cooking. If you add a clove of garlic, you’ll get even more flavour and health benefits.
- Make a turmeric latte, also known as golden milk. Check out this recipe from BBC Good Food.
Do you enjoy turmeric? Have you found other ways to sneak it into your diet? Tell us about it below.
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Michelle, how do you feel about Tumeric supplements as opposed to the powder?
There are different opinions on that. Of course, the companies that make supplements will tell you they are better. I would have to do some more research on that.
That’s so true, isn’t it Michelle? They tout their “Ours is the most effective,” but it’s hard to know.
It is hard to know. I will have to read up on that “in my spare time”. he he.
Yes, because you have so much of it! (I’m guessing about 30 seconds a day if you’re lucky!) Hehehe I will read up on it, and report back my dear! Cher xo
I will look forward to that!
🙂 xoxo
Enjoyed this post, Michelle! I love turmeric and use it every day in my cooking, usually in powdered form. I purchase my powdered turmeric from Diaspora Co, which was started by a woman from Mumbai (Diaspora Co is located in the USA). Diaspora Co’s mission is to turn around the spice trade by buying directly from farmers in India, so the farmers receive a fair wage and customers get the freshest spices. I have to say this is the BEST turmeric ever! I’m just a fan, I don’t get a commission for saying that, lol. I think it’s important to support women-owned businesses, small companies, and fair trade.
I have used turmeric powder in all the ways you described, plus added it to cookie recipes. Turmeric has also been called “poor man’s saffron” because saffron is so expensive, yet the less costly turmeric also colors food yellow like saffron does. In addition, I’ve used the fresh tuberous rhizomes (the underground stem) in stir fried dishes, and I’ve juiced it with other veggies for fresh juice drinks. Turmeric powder comes from the tuberous rhizome (not the above ground stalks) of the plant. To help make turmeric more absorbable, it can be consumed with spicy ginger root (another rhizome), or black pepper, as you mentioned. Yum, yum, yum! I love turmeric!
Thanks Kathy. I also like to support small businesses. I will have to check out Diaspora. Unfortunately, I often find that many American companies don’t ship to Canada. If they do, they often charge an arm and a leg for shipping. 🙁
I hadn’t thought about adding it to cookies. I will have to try that.
That is a wonderful post on turmeric benefits and ways to include. Turmeric is an essential ingredient of Indian dishes and Ayurveda also emphasizes on usage of turmeric for healing, etc. One easy way is to boil some turmeric in the milk for sometime and drink before going to bed. It helps in healing wounds, cold, cough, and a lot many health issues.
Deepti | http://perspectiveofdeepti.blogspot.com/
I am going to have to try drinking turmeric in milk. It sounds like a nice bedtime drink.
It absolutely is! Comfort in a mug packed full of all the benefits listed here. The hindi name for tumeric is Haldi and milk is dood. Haldi wala dood (known as Tumeric Latte) is an ancient Indian remedy, supposedly said to “heal the body” from the inside. It makes for a delicious alternative to coffee or hot chocolate! Fab post Michelle. Coming from and Indian background – we adore tumeric and will always find ways to sneak it in. On porridge with black pepper and honey is also a delicious.❤
I used to love turmeric tea. I haven’t been drinking turmeric tea for quite a long time. I think should start again. Thank you for sharing this.
Thanks for reading. 😀
I love turmeric! And I’m going to try the drink. 😀
I love it too…and it’s so easy to sneak into so many things.
Alongside ginger and garlic, I love to use turmeric in cooking! Today I had a batch of it farm-fresh so I juiced it to make syrup with and saved the pulp for adding to smoothies and dahl. 🙂
That’s great. I’ve never had fresh turmeric. I bet it tastes awesome.
I literally just bought turmeric for a stew recipe! I bought a big bag because I knew it had health benefits but I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Your post is very timely! 😀
Ha ha. It’s a sign. Enjoy!