This flavoursome dish is full of greeny goodness and is a nice alternative to a traditionally sweet breakfasts. It’s particularly great for Pitta’s as the greens in this bowl are very cooling and calming for hot natured Pitta’s. Plus quinoa is very alkalising and pacifies all the three doshas, winner!
Feeling Vata: Ensure you steam the vegetables well, and if a very dry Vata, add a teaspoon of olive oil to the finished bowl, together with a squeeze of lemon or more of the lime and a good pinch of salt.
Feeling Pitta: This is the breakfast for you! Simply enjoy!
Feeling Kapha: Leave out the cucumber and add slightly more kale. Go easy on the lime or leave out completly.
This flavoursome dish is full of greeny goodness and is a nice alternative to a traditionally sweet breakfasts. It's particularly great for Pitta's as the greens in this bowl are very cooling and calming for hot natured Pitta's. Plus quinoa is very alkalising and pacifies all the three doshas, winner!
Ingredients
half a cucumber
small bunch of kale (or choose another leafy green of your liking, such as spinach, chard, etc.)
juice of half a lime
1/2 cup of quinoa, best soaked overnight
1 pinch of salt
1 cup of water
optional: roasted coconut flakes for topping
Instructions
Soak the quinoa overnight.
Cook the quinoa in a heavy bottom pan with a bit of salt until soft and cooked (usually 15 to 20 minutes). Use 2 cups of water to 1 cup of quinoa.
Chop the kale finely and steam lightly for about 10 minutes.
Chop the cucumber in small pieces and steam very lightly for a few minutes. If you're really Pitta you can skip the steaming and just add the cucmber raw.
Add cucumber and kale to a bowl and drizzle with the lime juice.
Add and mix the cooked quinoa slowly into the kale and cucumber mix.
Season to taste with salt and pepper to your liking.
Optional: topp with with roasted coconut flakes and drizzle with a bit of olive oil (do this step only if you're not on a cleanse). Fresh avocado as a topping is also nice for Vata's and Pitta's. but skip for Kapha's.
This delicious grain-free smoothie bowl is super nourishing, especially on a cold winter’s day. If fruits and smoothies are not your thing and you also don’t like ‘Porridge & Co’., try this bowl as a very healthy breakfast alternative. It’s also great for people who experience food allergies and sensitive bellies from grains and pseudo-grains, as this yummy bowl totally delivers as a filling meal that keeps you going all morning, completley grain-free.
Feeling Vata: Particularly great and grounding for Vata’s, this breakfast will soon become a staple in your morning routine once you’ve tried it. Feeling Pitta: If your Pitta is high, reduce the ginger and the cardamom in this recipe. Skip the walnuts but topp with roasted almonds instead, or simply some toasted seeds. Feeling Kapha: don’t use oil or any nuts and add a pinch of cayenne pepper or two to the mix, leave out the maple syrup and try adding more cinnamom and cardamom.
This delicious grain-free smoothie bowl is super nourishing, especially on a cold winter's day. If fruits and smoothies are not your thing and you also don't like 'Porridge & Co'., try this bowl as a very healthy breakfast alternative. It's also great for people who experience food allergies and sensitive bellies from grains and pseudo-grains, as this yummy bowl totally delivers as a filling meal that keeps you going all morning, completley grain-free.
Ingredients
2 x medium sized carrots, chopped
1 x sweet potato, chopped into small pieces
2 x dates, dried (best soaked in water overnight)
250ml of water
1 x tablespoon maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 x teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
seeds of 2 x cardamom pots, or alternatively 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
optional: 1/2 teaspoon orange extract or 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 x pinch of salt
1 x teaspoon of olive oil (leave out if doing a cleanse)
handful of walnuts, soaked best overnight (leave out if doing a cleanse)
Instructions
Steam the carrots for 5-10 minutes until soft
Cook the sweetpotatoes until soft (usually between 15-20 minutes).
If you're not on a cleanse, roast the walnuts in a pan until fragrant
Once the vegetables are cooked, add the veg, the walnuts and the rest of the ingredients into a hight speed blender, and blend until smooth. Maybe add a little water if needed in case mixture is too thick (if on a cleanse leave out the nuts and the oil).
Taste and season with more cinnamon, maple syrup and salt, if needed.
If not on a cleanse, top with roasted nuts of your choice, edible flowers or toasted seeds suitable for your dosha.
This super simple recipe doesn’t require much effort, apart from the 20 minute cooking time which is slightly reduced if you soak the amaranth overnight. Amaranth is a pseudograin and glutenfree. Experiment by topping your fluffy Amaranth with stewed or cooked fruit such a blueberries, apples and pears.
Feeling Vata: Amaranth can aggravate Vata’s so this breakfast is probably not for you, however you can experiment with adding some nice oils such as olive or coconut, to make it’s energy more heavy and lubricating. Adding chopped fresh ginger can also help to add a bit of wamth to the mix. Feeling Pitta & Kapha: Amaranth’s light, acidifying nature is very good for Pitta and Kapha types.
This super simple recipe doesn't require much effort, apart from the 20 minute cooking time which is slightly reduced if you soak the amaranth overnight. Amaranth is a pseudograin and glutenfree. It's very good for Pitta and Kapha types, but can aggravate Vata's. Experiment by topping your fluffy Amaranth with stewed or cooked fruit such a blueberries, apples and pears.
Ingredients
1 x cup soaked Amaranth (best soaked overnight)
2 and a half cups of water
1 pinch of salt
1 tablespoon date or maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon coconut aminos (leave out if doing a cleanse)
fresh ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
Bring one part amaranth to two and a half parts water to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for around 20 minutes or until all the water is absorbed and the grain is fluffy.
Turn off the heat, then add the remaining ingredients.
Ready!
Top your Amaranth bowl with cooked berries or stewed fruits, or have it on its own with a bit of olive or coconut oil (No oils if you're doing a cleanse). Oher topping ideas could be superfoods such as gooji-berries, organic chocolate powder, roasted nuts and seeds, etc.
This smoothie bowl will warm you up nicely in the morning, giving your digestion a nice, gentle start to the day whilst at the same time cleansing your system of built-up toxins and filling you up with a great dose of antioxidants.
It might come as a suprise to you to stew and lightly cook the fruits in this smoothie first. After all, we’re so used to consuming smoothies and morning fruits raw and uncooked. Now trust me when I say that you will love this smoothie so much after you’ve eaten it a few times in the morning, you probably don’t want to go back to raw smoothies ever again! Especially if you have sensitive digestion or food allergies where many things can set you off and can trigger you, eating a cooked breakfast in the morning is a godsent. It gives your body the chance to warm up nicely, giving your digestion a gentle kick-start to the day, rather than dumping ice-cold fruits and juices from the fridge directly into your system. Think of your body like an engine of a car, it has to warm up first before it can start going. So does your body. Also, cooking food gently before you’re eating it helps your body to digest foods faster as it doesn’t need to invest so much energy to break them down. This in turn frees up more energy to be used elsewhere in your system: to fight inflammation, to heal, and to give you more energy during your day. Ayurveda really favors cooked over cold breakfasts, and especially for Vata and Kapha types, a cooked breakfast is a must.
Spirulina: super nutrient dense, I call Spirulina the best ‘natural Multi-Vit & Multi-Mineral’ available from the plant world today. High in B-Vitamins, Vit C, E and K, plus high in Magnesium, Calcium, Iron, Manganese, Potassium and Zinc, what’s not to like. It’s also high in plant protein, so great for vegans and vegetarians that are keen to up their protein intake naturally. Spirulina also has the capability to draw out heavy-metal toxins from our tissues, liver and brain and is thus a great all-round morning addition to any breakfast smoothie.
Wheatgrass Juice: also very rich in vitamins and minerals, wheatgrass has the added benefit of being super high in chlorophyll. This makes it a great detoxifying agent and can therefor protect against abnormal cell growth also known as cancer. Also, wheatgrass has been shown to boost levels of glutathione, the body’s primary antioxidant. Glutathione is used by the liver in all of its detox duties.
Atlantic Dulse Flakes: super high in anti-oxidants, dulse flakes make a great anti-inflammatory, fighting disease causing free-radicals. Studies have also shown that dulse (and also kelp) can reduce toxic heavy metals and also clear radioactivity from the body.
Coriander (Cilantro): is a powerful anti-fungal, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory. In Aryurveda coriander is hailed for its cooling effects on the digestive tract, for calming the immune-system and rashes, and for being a mild diuretic that clears inflammation from the urinary tract. Even though it acts as being slightly drying, it does not aggravate the Vata constitution, and pacifies (calms) all the three doshas.
Feeling Vata: add more fresh ginger and try adding warming spices such as cinnamon and or cardamom to your smoothie.
Feeling Pitta:ease off on the ginger, and instead try adding more cooling herbs such as fresh mint and more coriander to your smoothie.
Feeling Kapha:give your metabolism that extra boost by adding a pinch or two of cayenne pepper, and experiment with adding some bitter greens such as dandelion to your smoothie.
This smoothie bowl will warm you up nicely in the morning, giving your digestion a nice, gentle start to the day whilst at the same time cleansing your system of built-up toxins and filling you up with a great dose of antioxidants.
Ingredients
2 x ripe bananas, chopped
2 x handfulls of wild blueberries (I usually buy these frozen from the organic store and always have some in the freezer)
1 x apple, chopped (optional)
half a mango, chopped (optional)
1 x teaspoon of fresh ginger, minced (optional)
half a teaspoon atlantic dulse flakes (if you don't like the taste of atlantic dulse you can simply buy some dulse flakes encapsulated and take them alongside the smoothie)
one orange, peeled
1 x teaspoon spirulina powder (if you don't like the taste of spirulina buy spirulina tablets and take them with your smoothie)
1 x teaspoon wheatgrass or barleygrass juice powder
1 x teaspoon fresh or dried coriander
optional: for additional sweetness you can add a teaspoon of raw honey.
Instructions
Add a little bit of water to a heavy bottom sauce pan
Add the banana, apple (if using) & mango (if using) and the minced fresh ginger to the pan, cover and simmer on low heat for about 5-10 minutes, so that the fruits are stewing nicely and slowly and don't get overcooked or burned.
When the fruits are stewed enough, take them off the heat.
Pout the cooked fruit and ginger mix into a high-speed blender.
Add the peeled orange, the dulse flakes, spirulina, wheatgrass and coriander.
Blend all until smooth.
If you need extra sweetness you can add the raw honey to your smoothie.
Notes
If not on a cleanse or detox programme, you can give your smoothie bowl some nice toppings such as your favourite gluten free granola, chopped roasted coconut flakes, roasted pumpkin, etc. Let your creative mind run wild. Just ensure your toppings are roasted or slightly steamed and not cold from the fridge, especially if you're a Vata or Kapha type.
This deliciously creamy white sauce is a total winner when you need something to top of your garden-veg, as a great alternative to mayonnaise, and simply a nice dip without any of the guilt. If on a cleanse, simply skip the olive-oil and make this a virtually fat-free dressing. Either or, this sauce will leave you longing for more.
Feeling Vata: add more lemon juice and salt. You can try experimenting with basil, coriander, dill, rosemary and thyme. Feeling Pitta: leave out the garlic or just use half or less of a clove. You can use herbs such as coriander, dill, fennel, parsley, and tarragon. Feeling Kapha: add more black pepper. Try experimenting with adding herbs such as thyme, rosemary, fennel, fennugreek, marjoram and tarragon.
This deliciously creamy white sauce is a total winner when you need something to top of your garden-veg, as a great alternative to mayonnaise, and simply a nice dip without any of the guilt. If on a cleanse, simply skip the olive-oil and make this a virtually fat-free dressing. Either or, this sauce will leave you longing for more.
Ingredients
1 x clove of garlic
1 x shallot, chopped
2 x teaspoons of olive oil (omit for a fat-free dressing)
1 x cup plant-milk alternative (I use oatly's organice oat milk)
1 x teaspoon fresh parsley
1/2 a teaspoon of stock-powder (ensure that you're stock powder is yeast free, and most importantly has no added fats such a hydrogenated vegetable oils, palm oils, etc. Be sure to also buy a brand that is free of maltodextrin, and any other natural or unnatual flavourings).
1 x teaspoon fresh dill
3/4 of a teaspoon ground ginger
1 x teaspoon coconut aminos (leave out if doing a cleanse)
1 x teaspoon arrowroot powder
half a teaspoon of lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Mix all the ingredients together in a high-speed blender, plus salt and pepper to taste.
Add the mixture to a heavy bottom sauce pan and heat lightly on the stove.
Keep stirring the mixture and increase heat bit by bit for about 3-5 minutes until mixture thickens up nicely. If you don't reach a nice thickness after a while, simply add a bit more arrowroot powder and keep heating and stirring (don't bring to the boil though!)
Take off the heat and let the sauce cool down.
Once its cooled down a little have a try and season with more salt and pepper if needed.
Let cool for at least an hour in the fridge, then serve!
Notes
Play around with other herbs that you like such as coriander parsley, dill, dried herbs de provence, italian herb mixes, and so forth.
This creamy delicious tomato sauce has all the freshness of tomatoes and the added depth and flavour of sweet succulent dates. Great as a topping for a summer’s buddha bowl, on veggies when you’re doing a cleanse, or as a healthy ketchup alternative on home-made potatoe fries. Get stuck in!
Feeling Vata: this is a great sauce for you, enjoy as it is.
Feeling Pitta: Skip the onion if feeling too hot.
Feeling Kapha: Don’t use the full amount of dates, probably best with only 4-6. Add some cayenne pepper and more cinnamon to boost digestion. Go easy on the salt and skip or use very little of the oil.
This creamy delicious tomato sauce has all the freshness of tomatoes and the added depth and flavour of sweet succulent dates. Great as a topping for a summer's buddha bowl, on veggies when you're doing a cleanse, or as a healthy ketchup alternative on home-made potatoe fries. Get stuck in!
Ingredients
4 medium, ripe tomatoes
6-10 dates, depending on how sweet you like it
half a chopped red onion
1-2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
1 clove of garlic
1 x dash of cinnamon
1 x dash of ground cloves
1/4 cups of water (60ml)
1 teespoon coconut aminos (leave out if doing a cleanse)
1 teaspoon ground sea salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
1 and a half teaspoons of arrowroot powder (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil (leave out if doing a cleanse)
Instructions
Finely chop up dates, tomatoes, the onion and garlic.
Heat up about one teaspoon of olive oil in a pan and then add the onion and garlic, fry lightly until the onion has gone transluscent (if you're on a detox or cleanse, leave out the oil and fry the onion in water instead).
Then add the tomatoes, dates, ground cloves, cinnamon, water, lemon juice and the salt. Let the mixture come to a bubble, cover it with a lid and turn the heat to the lowest setting. Let it cook for 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes add the mixture into your blender and blend until smooth.
Optional: Pour the mixture back into your pan and mix with the arrowroot powder with about 1 tablespoon of cold water. Add powder mixture into your Date & Tomato Sauce and let it come to a bubble and the sauce thickens up lightly. Finished. Season to taste with salt & pepper.
Alternatively you can make a raw sauce, by putting all ingredients (leave out the arrowroot powder and olive oil if you're doing a cleanse) and mix in a high speed blender.
This lush orange vinaigrette dressing is perfect for a summer’s day when you want that zingy, fresh feeling on your vegetables, without any heaviness of any oils. Perfect for cleansing or detoxing.
Feeling Vata: you do best without the wasabi and the cayenne but can crank up the lemon juice and the maple syrup.
Feeling Pitta: go easier on the spice, too hot is not good for you.
Feeling Kapha: you can turn up the spice a bit and add more of the cayenne for a metabolism boost.
This lush orange vinaigrette dressing is perfect for a summer's day when you want that zingy, fresh feeling on your vegetables, without any heaviness of any oils. Perfect for cleansing or detoxing.
Pitta's go easier on the spice, and best leave out the garlic.
Kapha's can turn up the spice a bit and can add more of the cayenne for a metabolism boost.
Vata's do also best without the wasabi and the cayenne but can crank up the lemon juice, the salt and the maple syrup.
Ingredients
1/2 cup orange juice freshly squeezed
2 clementines, satsumas or other small seedless oranges, peeled
2 x medjool dates, chopped
1 x tablespoon chia seeds or flax seeds (leave out if on a fat-free cleanse)
1 x teaspoon fresh ginger root chopped
1/2 teaspoon coconut aminos (optional, leave out if on a cleanse)
1 x garlic clove
1 x pinch of salt
ground black pepper to taste
1/2 x teaspoon wasabi powder (optional)
1 x pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
1 x teaspoon of maple syrup
1 x teaspoon of lemon juice
Instructions
Place all ingredients in a blender and blend at high speed until smooth.
Taste and add additional seasonings as needed (salt, pepper, maplesyrup).
Allow to stand at least 10 minutes to thicken slightly and let the flavor develop.
This wonderfully well-spiced mango chutney will have you gagging for more! Use less spice and chillies if you’re feeling overly Pitta, and turn it more into a sweet mango chutney without the hotness. Plus this chutney is virtually fat-free, so goes well with any detox or cleanse diet, and can be thus enjoyed without the guilt!
This wonderfully well-spiced mango chutney will have you gagging for more! Use less spice and chillies if you're feeling overly Pitta, and turn it more into a sweet mango chutney without the hotness. Plus this chutney is virtually fat-free, so goes well with any detox or cleanse diet, and can be thus enjoyed without the guilt!
Ingredients
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1 x small yellow or red chilli pepper, minced
3/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper (optional)
2 x tablespoons fresh minced ginger
1/4 red pepper flakes (optional, omit if Pitta for less heat)
1 x tablespoon curry powder
3 x cups chopped ripe mango
1/2 cup mango or orange juice (or use water and adjust sweetness later on)
3-4 tablespoons coconut sugar (or maple syrup, or adjust to taste or omit for a less sweet mango chutney)
Pinch of sea salt & pepper to taste
1/4 tablespoon garam masala (optional)
1 x small apple,chopped
Instructions
In a small saucepan over medium heat, add a bit of water t cover the bottom, then add red onion, chilli pepper, bell pepper (optional), ginger, red pepper flakes (optional), and curry powder. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Then add the remaining ingredients and cover. Cook on low for 20-30 minutes. The mango and apple should be soft but not entirely puréed/mushy.
Enjoy warm or let cool to room temperature before use. Enjoy on salads, buddha bowls, potatoes or as a nice side for any indian curry dish.
Will keep covered in the refrigerator up to 1 week or in the freezer up to 1 month.
This delicious onion dressing is completly fat free, perfect for those days where you want to go easy on the oils if you’re having a cleanse, a detox, or simply when you want to go a little less heavy but still have all the taste. Use it on budhha bowls, salads, to dip home-made sweet potato fries, and so forth.
This delicious onion dressing is completly fat free, perfect for those days where you want to go easy on the oils if you're having a cleanse, a detox, or simply when you want to go a little less heavy but still have all the taste.
Ingredients
4 x medium onions
3 x teaspoons lemon juice
1 x garlic clove
1x teaspoon white chia seeds (optional, for thickness)
1/2 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
1/4 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped
1/4 tablespoon fresh dill weed
1/4 tablespoon black pepper ground
salt to taste
optional: if you're not on a cleanse and you don't mind some extra 'fat' adding in 1-2 teaspoons of high-quality olive oil will give some extra creamyness to your dressing!
Instructions
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place the onions with their skins on in a baking dish and bake until soft all the way through. This can take up to around 45 minutes, but might be a bit longer or shorter depending on your oven. Onions should be well darkened on the outside and almost squishy to touch (very soft).
Allow the onions to cool until they’re comfortable to handle. Peel onions and discard off the skins. Place the peeled onions in a high-powered blender along with lemon juice and salt. Blend until silky smooth.
Measure out 1/2 cup of the onion cream for your dressing. The rest can go in the freezer or fridge and can be used next time you want to make this dressing.
Add onion cream plus the garlic to the blender and blend until smooth. Check the thickness. Add the 1/4 teaspoon of chia seeds (optionoal) and blend until smooth for extra thickness if you like.
Now add the fresh herbs, and blend in blender until you have your desired consistency.
Add salt & pepper to taste.
Refrigerate for at least one hour.
The flavor usually intensifies over time, so only add additional herbs and spices once you waited for an hour, to be on the safe side.
Serve as a salad dressing or a dipping sauce for vegetables and budhha bowls.
‘Turmeric’, ‘Curcuma’, ‘Kurkuma’, ‘the golden spice’, ‘the yellow gold’ and ‘golden goddess’ to name but few. This super spice has many names, and just as many, if not more, excuberant healing powers.
Mainly used in Indian cuisine, hailed for its flavour in traditional currys, soups and stews, and due to its amazing deep yellow tone for its great colouring abilities (careful of those food stains); turmeric is but not just a simple spice. Turmeric is a POWERHOUSE, a power-plant with amazing healing and anti-inflammatory abilities, and is one of the most powerful herbs on the planet today to help us humans shield from inflammation, prevent disease, and to keep our bodies strong and healthy.
Curcuma Longa’ which is the Latin name for turmeric, comes from the Arabic name for the plant, ‘Kurkum’ and is a member of the ginger family (Zingiberacea), which includes ginger and galangal.
Turmeric is actually a beautiful tall growing green and flowering plant. The part that is used in cooking as a spice and for supplementation in natural medicine are the fingerlike stalks (Rhizome) that grow beneath the earth’s surface. Looking similar to the ginger root, when you cut open a turmeric root, you’ll see its blooming yellow, almost orange colour coming out.
If you haven’t cooked with turmeric yet, you might have come across turmeric through the ‘Turmeric (‘Curcuma’) Latte’ trend that has kind of exploded over the past 2 years. Also referred to as ‘Golden Milk‘, plant or animal milk is heatet and then mixed with turmeric powder, honey and other spices such as cardamom and black pepper. Apart from its nourishing and calming taste, a ‘Turmeric Latte’ doesn’t only just taste good, it has many healing benefits for you and your body.
Turmeric has been used as a plant medicine and a healing herb in traditional philosophies such as Ayuveda for over more than 3000 years. Ancient scripts that were written thousand of years ago already talk about the healing power of the golden goddess:
‘Jvaraghna’: relieves fever.
‘Viṣaghna’: destroys toxins and poisons.
‘Kusthagna’: eliminates skin diseases
‘Kaṇḍughna’: anti-itching
‘Vedanāsthāpana’: soothes pain
‘Raktasodhana’: blood purifying
‘Prameha’: helps with diabetes
‘Sirovirecana’: eliminates congestion in the head area
and many, many more…
Today modern science has proven turmeric effective through countless studies, and can confirm what ancient traditions already knew to be the truth for centuries:
Turmeric has proven very effective in treating some of the most intense illnesses that we experience in the world today such as: Cancer, Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Atherosclerosis, Indigestion, Inflammation, Acne, Urinary Tract Infections, Kidney Infections, Gallstones, Anemia, Hemorrhoids, Liver Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Hepatitis-C, Genital Herpes) , Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Edema, Bronchitis, Common Cold, Headaches, parasites, diarrhea, poor circulation, lower back and abdominal pain. It can also be used as wound healer, and it helps balance the female reproductive system. In men it purifies and improves the health of semen.
The reason for turmeric being able to treat so many different diseases lies in its incredible anti-inflammatory capacity: Anti-inflammatory means in a very literal sense, for example, to reduce swelling. Say you have been in an accident and sprained your ankle. Chances are high that you’ll experience a swelling of some sort, maybe some redness, tender pain on touching and a warm sensation in the area of the injury. This is simply a natural reaction of your body to induce healing: a natural state of inflammation to induce a healing response. Inflammation can also occur on the insides of our bodies, where we can’t see it, and more often than not, don’t even feel it.
Imagine little tiny construction sitesthat you’re body is working on constantly at all times to keep you healthy. This is totally normal and happens all the time without us noticing. Inflammation is really a natural process in which enzymes, prostaglandines and other inflammatory proteins (Cox-2, NF-kB, Lox-5, to name but a few) up and down regulate inflammation as part of the inflammatory response pathway. Modern day living however, mainly trough oxidative stress, can cause the inflammation response to ‘get out of control’:
When inflammation becomes a problem: Our bodies are bombarded constantly with environmental poisons, toxic foods, stress and so forth: too many coffees, pesticides, rushing to work, an argument with the boss, drinking alcohol at night. Holding tension day in and day out, without giving our body the rest it deserves. And suddenly we find ourselves in a downward spiral of uncontrollable digestive issues, auto-immune-diseases or cancer. Scientists now believe that chronic, low-level inflammation plays a major role in almost every chronic, western disease. We have come under so much stress that the standard inflammation pathway can literally not regulate itself anymore efficiently.
Turmeric is hailed as one of the best natural anti-inflammatories in the world today: Countless studies have shown that turmeric helps to immensily improve the inflammation responses in our bodies, helping us heal quicker from illness and improving the time-span from when inflammation first occurs to its natural conclusion. Thus swellings reduce faster, wounds heal quicker and infections can ease off sooner.
The active compounds in turmeric, one of them being called curcumin, are strongly anti-inflammatory. In fact, they’re so powerful that it matches the effectiveness of some anti-inflammatory drugs, without the side effects. It blocks NF-kB, a molecule that travels into the nuclei of your cells and turns on genes related to inflammation. NF-kB is believed to play a major role in many chronic diseases.
Furthermore, turmeric and its active compounds dramatically increase the anti-oxidant capacity of the cells in our bodies: Curcumin is a potent antioxidant that can neutralize free radicals due to its chemical structure. It has also been shown to increase the production of Nrf2, a multi-organ protector that helps our bodies fight ROS (reactive oxygen species). Thus curcumin boosts the activity of your body’s own antioxidant enzymes.
In summary, turmeric and its compounds such as curcumin, have powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant capacities. With oxidative stress and chronic inflammation being the major causes for modern day health problems, turmeric can be instrumental in helping to fight aging and in preventing degenerative disease.
Read Next: Turmeric’s therapeutic effects: standard spice vs. turmeric supplementation
