Medicinal Turmeric

The bioactive compounds found in turmeric are called as curcuminoids. Curcumin is one of the most important or the main active ingredient in turmeric. It has powerful anti-inflammatory effects and is a very strong antioxidant.

However, the curcumin content of turmeric is not that high… it’s around 3%, by weight. Also curcumin is poorly absorbed into the blood stream. It helps to consume black pepper that contains piperine, a natural substance that enhances the absorption of curcumin by 2000%. Curcumin is soluble in fat.
So to extract the optimum benefits of turmeric

1) Activate turmeric with some cooking heat
2) Boost turmeric’s absorption by 2000% by adding some black pepper that has piperine in it.
3) Skyrocket bioavailability and healing potential by adding healthy fat like ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil.
4) So warm up some ghee on gentle heat and add turmeric and black pepper to it so that curcumine from turmeric will be available for it’s medicinal use.
5) Cut root – 1.5 to3 gms per day or powder – 1 to 3 gms per day

 I like to use peanut oil as it blends in very well with the Indian food and actually enhances flavors of the spices we use. It has 17% saturated fat, 46% unsatutaed fat and 32% polyunsaturated fat. It as smoking point of 437 degrees F. It has 33% lenoleic acids (omega 6), and 48% oleic acids (omega 9) and traces of alpha-lenoleic acids (omega 3).  I make flax seed chutney to get omega 3 

I add turmeric powder in oil tempering that is used in almost all the vegetables, many salads, snacks, and legumes/beans/dal preparations for the two meals we eat every day.

Even thogh each person eats only part of these dishes, by the end of the day one should get the required amount of turmeric without even knowing it.