How to get more healing potential from our turmeric

Combining herbs and spices in our meals can have a huge effect on how our bodies are able to use the medicinal properties in them, not to mention a fun way to include more interesting flavors, colors and aroma in our meals and drinks.

One of the most famous and researched combinations of Healing Spices is our ol’ favorite, the classic “black pepper and turmeric combo”.  Now, if you have ever heard one of my talks over the years, I often explain that our bodies are “water based” that is to say, we more easily absorb most nutrients that are water soluble. Turmeric has many medicinal chemicals, sometimes referred to as active ingredients, but some of them are not so easy for the body to extract or use as it travels through your digestive tract. Curcumin is one of the most famous chemicals in turmeric along with the lessor known tumerone, zingerene, phellandrene, cineole, sabinene and borneol, several amino acids aka protiens, vitamins and minerals.  So how do we get the most out of this amazing colorful spice and put the famous curcumin and its chemical friends to work healing us from the inside out if our bodies struggle to get to them?  Great question! You combine it with something that will help protect it and guide it as it travels through your digestive track to be absorbed in your small intestine and send from there off to all your inflamed nooks and crannies. Kind of like a digestive mentor.

And let’s be honest I don’t know about eating turmeric all by itself anyway... who does that?  You might as well combine it with things that will help activate its healers since you are not likely to be eating the tiny carrot like rhizomes or popping a spoon full of powder straight into your mouth anyway.

As previously mentioned, black pepper is a great option. Most of the research I have read describes a ratio of 5% black pepper to 95% turmeric as being enough for the peperine, one of black pepper’s most famous active ingredients, to catalyze the curcumin, (as well as carotenes, selenium, vitamin Bs, vitamin C, coenzyme Q10 and many more), and make it more bioavailable for our bodies. Studies show it can effectively transport curcumin and turmeric across the intestinal barrier and protects it from drug metabolizing enzymes. Some studies suggest we are able to absorb and use 2000% more curcumin with the help of just a 5% ratio of black pepper.  Seems easy enough.

If you don’t like or can’t use black pepper to help your body get the most out of your turmeric, good news. There are more options.

“Fats / oils / Lipids have a different mechanism than piperine in increasing systemic availability of curcumin and turmeric, but it definitely increases availability by several folds than unformulated turmeric.”

That is to say that oils and fats can also work to guide medicines in turmeric to where you need it most in your body. You can include healthy oils or fats in whatever meal or drink you are preparing with your turmeric. Butter, ghee, milk, olive oil, avocado, eggs, and meats are all great options to play with.  Although, the routes the curcumin takes in your body when combined with lipids is distinctly different than with peperine it still helps us absorb 30 to 50 times the medicines than turmeric can alone.

So, I encourage you to tap a little turmeric powder or shred some fresh turmeric on your avocado toast, morning eggs, on your meat rubs, in your salad dressings and in your soups. Not only will it be amply absorbed by your body but it will go right to work supporting your immune system, reducing inflammation, help lower your triglycerides and cholesterol, heal wounds in your liver, skin, eyes, brain and much much more.