When last perusing your spice rack, you may have happened upon turmeric and wondered, “What can turmeric be used for other than curry?”

Of course, curry, the Indian-inspired dish that every Thai restaurant has several selections to choose from (chicken curry, vegetarian curry, coconut milk curry, seafood curry), uses a lot of turmeric, but you may be surprised to know that turmeric “curries” favor with other household-name foods and condiments like relish, sausage, pickles and mustard.

But it’s not the culinary quality of turmeric that I want to focus on today.  Because believe it or not, turmeric has health-promoting (and custom-promoting) properties outside the gastronomic arena.

For instance, most of us know that rice plays a role in most American weddings, but did you know that in Indian weddings, turmeric plays the rice role?

No, on-lookers don’t throw handfuls of turmeric as the happy couple marches down the aisle, but the husband and wife do apply turmeric paste to their face and arms during the ceremony (right before their bathing ritual).

Turmeric is widely known in Indian cultures as promoting healthy skin.  And besides husbands and grooms, beach bums often use turmeric to treat their skin after sunbathing for hours on end.  Check the ingredients for your sunscreen yourself, as turmeric is a common ingredient in many commercially available sunscreens.

But the health benefits of turmeric are more than just skin deep.  Studies indicate turmeric may help relieve the symptoms of multiple myeloma, which is a cancer that affects the plasma cells in bone marrow.

Other studies show that it’s sort of a jack of all trades when it comes to cancer, for when turmeric is combined with other things, it’s helped halt the growth of existing prostate cancers, prevent the metastasizing of breast cancer in mice, improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatment, and block the growth of new blood vessels in tumors.  Blood vessels are the lifeblood (pardon the pun) of cancer cells’ ability to grow and multiply.

However you use it – whether you’re adding it to a favorite dish to give it some piquancy, or following Indians’ advice and using to treat your psoriasis – you can’t go wrong with turmeric.  It’s chock full of vitamins and minerals, with two teaspoons containing two milligrams of iron, a gram of fiber, and 114 milligrams of potassium!

And if you’re using a ton of turmeric – say, 100 grams, which is about a ½ cup – it has six grams of protein, 150 milligrams of calcium and 282 milligrams of phosphorus!!

But be warned, turmeric is an extremely potent spice, so a little goes a long way.  In short, if you’re experimenting with turmeric for the first time, don’t add any more than a tablespoon to your dishes, depending on what the recipe calls for and how many people you’re serving.

Sources
health.google.com
healthdiaries.com
healthdiaries.com
herbs.ygoy.com