We recently released our new menus for Fall/Winter, so chances are you’ve already tried the “Golden Monkey”. If that’s the case, we won’t need to tell you how delicious it is, but we do want to tell you what people are saying about the health benefits this drink has for your body!
As you know, turmeric is one of the main ingredients in this recipe, and many people have found that this herb has notable impact on all kinds of things from arthritis to gastrointestinal problems to allergies! We asked our friend and herbalist Leah Larabell from High Garden Tea to give us some insight into this herb’s credibility as a healthy addition to our diet and here are some of the things she said:
- • Powerful anti-inflammatory components safely reduce the pain and swelling of arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, bursitis and tendonitis.
- • Anti-inflammatory benefits also extend to gastrointestinal (GI) problems, such as gastric ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis.
- • Potent antioxidants help stop unstable oxygen molecules that can otherwise run crazy in our bodies, damaging cells and opening the door to dangerous diseases, such as cancer. This is also beneficial after illness when the body actually produces these free radicals to fight the foreign bacteria but sometimes makes too much and we need help cleaning them up.
- • Turmeric helps curb excessive immune responses that characterize conditions such as allergies, asthma and possibly even multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease, where (in animal studies) curcumin appears to inhibit development of amyloid plaques.
- • Studies suggest a still wider range of healing benefits, such as lowering cholesterol, preventing atherosclerosis and protecting the liver against chemicals and viral damage.
Turmeric often gets confused or replaced with its most well-known “active” compound, curcumin. Turmeric contains a variety of inflammation-fighting compounds known as curcuminoids — the most widely known and extensively studied of which is curcumin. Importantly, large doses of curcumin can cause gastric upset, while the herb turmeric contains a number of active ingredients that combine to have a gastro-protective effect. Curcumin, isolated, also is very poorly absorbed by the body while being within turmeric as a whole plant is well absorbed.
