Superfoods part 17

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today’s post: Tuesday, 5-9-2006

Superfoods & Honor Roll Foods, part 17

Ginger, Turmeric, & Curry.

Ginger & Turmeric are the superfoods. Curry is included as most curries are high in turmeric; but they vary in their flavors & usually taste far better than straight turmeric.

Both ginger & turmeric are available as supplements in addition to being available in most supermarkets as spices.

So if you don’t like or know how to cook with them or can’t find a curry you like, you can still get the health benefits.

Ginger helps make gingerbread taste good & is heavily used in Chinese cooking. And curries with lots of Turmeric are heavily used in cooking & recipes from India.

So, if you like either kind of food, you very likely already like these spices.

Both Ginger & Turmeric are anti-inflammatory. So, if you want a safe, if mild anti-inflammatory effect, they are great choices. And normalizing inflammation is becoming better & better known as protecting your health.

They may each have some of the other’s effects as they are botanically related; but the two health benefits I’m aware of Ginger are:

1) it sharply increases the threshold of your nausea reflex. So, if you tend to get airsick or seasick & will be in that kind of situation, you can take ginger as a supplement ahead of time & either escape nausea entirely or have the effect be less & harder to bring on. And, if it does show up, it will happen later, so the time you’ll feel the nausea will be less.

2) I saw a study reported recently that said that Ginger apparently caused cancer cells to undergo “Aptosis” – to self-destruct & stop multiplying !!

So, eating Ginger as a spice every week may keep you from getting some cancers. And taking it as a supplement might help slow or cure cancer or help keep it from metastasizing -- or returning once most of it is removed.

Taking Turmeric as a supplement or eating food with curry containing it daily or many days a week is one of the several actions you can take that research shows will sharply reduce your chances of getting age-related mental decline & Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers initially discovered this when they found that people who live in India very rarely get Alzheimer’s disease; & this is believed to be because of their daily or near daily intake of curry with Turmeric in it.

So, it looks like the kind of anti-inflammatory action Turmeric has is strongly protective for your brain & keeps its cells alive & functioning.

Also, you may find your stomach tolerates the supplement Turmeric better than eating LOTS of foods with curry.

Some curries produce their strong sensation of heat with substances that some people’s stomachs don’t deal with well. And, for such people those curries have produced damage to their stomach lining. (Oddly, very hot peppers don’t seem to have this effect.)

Also, if you love curry, go easy on the hottest ones & choose the milder ones most of the time.