The Almighty Turmeric
Getting To Know Each Other
When studying holistic nutrition in school, we learned about the powerful benefits of food for health, healing, and disease prevention. Turmeric was a big one amongst some other super herbs like ginger and garlic. Prior to school, I knew turmeric as a deep orange-yellow spice that was in curry and Indian dishes, but after school when I landed a 3-month internship on the Big Island in Hawaii, is where I really started to understand just how mighty this herbal root really is.
Living and working at a Cancer Retreat Center, one of my jobs was to harvest their fresh turmeric plants. It was amazing to unearth these clusters of knobby, fingerlike roots knowing that THIS was the almighty turmeric! As I would clean away the rich soil that gripped tightly around this plant, the familiar-looking turmeric root would appear before my eyes. I took care to wash it well, separate the pieces and allow it to dry so that we could store it. How amazing to have one of the most potent plant medicines freshly grown and harvested for those who came to the retreat center to heal.
Why It’s Just That Good
Turmeric, also called “yellow ginger” is actually a part of the ginger family of plants and the part of the turmeric plant that we use for cooking or medicine is the rhizome of the plant, which is the fleshy root system. Turmeric is used in everything from the now trending ‘turmeric latte’, to teas, to curries, pastes, and poultices, as a digestive aid, for flaky skin, and for inflammatory conditions like psoriasis, dermatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disorders, to name a few.
Because of its deep yellow-orange vibrancy, it is also used as a dye to color not only food, but cosmetics, paper, wood, and fabrics. This is NOT the food you want to work with on an uncovered counter surface or without an apron on and prepare to have orange fingers after working with it in the kitchen — take my word for it!
The active constituent in the Turmeric plant is called curcumin. Curcumin is best known for its effective anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties, and it also has anti-cancer effects blocking the growth of certain types of tumors.
Curcumin on its own is not that easily absorbed, but if you combine it with a constituent found in black pepper, called piperine, the bioavailability of this plant medicine increases by 2000%.
Incorporate It Into Your Everyday
There are many ways to employ this plant medicine, but as a lifestyle herb and for long term use and preventative healthcare, we love using it in our daily morning elixir, throwing a small knob of it into a smoothie, and of course, using the spice for cooking…just don’t forget to add that pinch of pepper!
For healing conditions or diseases, it is best to speak with a herbalist, naturopathic doctor, or functional medicine expert on the appropriate dosage of a more concentrated formulation.
Try Growing It!
Now that you have some insight into this wondrous and almighty power food, make sure to stock up next time you are at the store and also save a piece or two that you notice little buds forming on, and you can easily plant this rhizome and grow your very own turmeric plant medicine at home!