Trying to find ways to eat more turmeric

[Thomas G]

I've been adding turmeric to as many meals as I can. I don't mind the taste, but I wouldn't say I love it, and in many cases I think the meal would taste better without it. So I've been looking for better ways to get more turmeric.

 

I bought some turmeric root for the first time last week and tried just eating a few grams of it raw. When I looked in the mirror, my teeth were hilariously and horrifically orange. I think I may have permanently stained my toothbrush yellow. 

 

The last couple of days I've been trying something different. I've been cutting the turmeric root into small cubes, smaller than a normal pill, and swallowing those cubes whole. I'm not sure if that is a good idea or a bad idea. On the one hand, I worry about choking since the cubes are irregular and not as pill-shaped as a pill. I could also see myself lazily leaving a cube a little too big. I'm also not sure if all those cubes will be digested in the same way as eating the root normally or in dried and powdered form. But, on the other hand, maybe it would be really good to do this because it means the turmeric would survive through more of the digestive system?

 

After this batch of roots are gone, I'm going to consider other options, including filling my own empty capsules with dried turmeric like this guy is doing. I'm not interested in taking a curcumin supplement, this would be the same dried and powdered turmeric you would add to food, just put into a pill and taken with food.

 

I'm still going to add turmeric to food when it makes sense, I'd just like to eat more of it without always having to have everything taste like it.

 

 

[Dean Pomerleau]

Thomas,

 

I dice tumeric root (along with ginger root and horseradish) into small pill-sized cubes like it sounds like you do. Then I mix about a tablespoon of this three-root mixture into my starch mix (beans, whole grains, rice & potatoes), along with natto, my spice mix and my homemade sriracha ketchup. Quite the flavor blast, as you might imagine. I rather enjoy it. You might consider trying something similar, rather than stuffing your own pills. I've done that myself many years ago, and it's a PITA.

 

--Dean

[Thomas G]

I have been thinking more about trying to optimize my meals by breaking it down into a series of "mixes" including a beans mix, a nuts mix, a grains mix, etc.

 

I think I'm probably going through the same thought processes and learning curve that most of you went through years ago.

 

I'd really like to cut down on the time I spend cooking, while simplifying and optimizing at the same time. I like eating different foods each day, but at a certain point it just gets simpler to try to come up with one ideal meal. Maybe I could eat a series of mixes but leave room for 300 calories of some special meal for the day.

 

When it comes to designing these mixes, I've got a million questions and wish I could work with a professional nutritionist. Is variety best or would it be better to concentrate on the types with the most nutrients? For example, I did make a little bean mix this week in which I soaked one cup dry beans of every variety of bean I had in the house. But wouldn't it be better to have more black beans and kidney beans and fewer navy beans? If every navy bean is taking the place of a black bean, wouldn't it be better to cut navy's out entirely and increase black beans?

 

I'm dreaming of the day when we can have an algorithm read our genome and then design a menu of delicious foods that we can 3D print and eat.

 

For the next three weeks I'm still going to be cooking around my CSA, but after that I think I'm going to start experimenting with making some mixes and then trying to optimize them for nutrition, simplicity, and cost. Maybe I can find a way to through turmeric root into one of those mixes.

 

But I'm not sure adding turmeric root to a mix solves the two problems I've been having. Doesn't it turn your teeth yellow to encounter the root in your food? And doesn't your food end up being overpowered by the flavor? 

[Dean Pomerleau]

Thomas,

 

Yes - getting mixes right is difficult. There is a tradeoff between variety and known advantages of one food over another (e.g. black beans > navy beans, black rice > basmati rice?) that nobody knows the answer to.

 

But I'm not sure adding turmeric root to a mix solves the two problems I've been having. Doesn't it turn your teeth yellow to encounter the root in your food? And doesn't your food end up being overpowered by the flavor? 

 

I don't seem to have either problem. I don't find small chunks of raw turmeric root stain my teeth, and I rather like its flavor.

 

Of course, I also enjoy eat several cloves of raw garlic and small chunks of raw horseradish root for breakfast.

 

So your mileage may vary.

 

--Dean

[Larry Johnson]

Thomas,

 

I dice tumeric root (along with ginger root and horseradish) into small pill-sized cubes like it sounds like you do. Then I mix about a tablespoon of this three-root mixture into my starch mix (beans, whole grains, rice & potatoes), along with natto, my spice mix and my homemade sriracha ketchup. Quite the flavor blast, as you might imagine. I rather enjoy it. You might consider trying something similar, rather than stuffing your own pills. I've done that myself many years ago, and it's a PITA.

 

--Dean

 

I have a similar mix that I put in just about any bean or grain mix.  My wife calls it my "orange paste".  She tries to be in another room while I'm eating it, as she doesn't find it appetizing.  I started doing it with steel cut oats, and began adding it to other cooked meals.  My teeth didn't turn yellow, but my wife put aside dedicated utensils for me, since I was staining everything with turmeric and clove.

[Pea]

Ginger turmeric elixir

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
5 grams ginger
10 grams  turmeric
1/4 tsp cardamom
Pinch cayenne
3 cups filtered water
Fresh mint

Combine first 6 ingredients in Vitamixer and blend

Add fresh mint sprigs to glass.

Enjoy!

-Pea

Edited October 4, 2016 by Pea

[Gordo]

Pea, you measure ingredients for recipes in inches? That doesn't sound very reproducible :)  

 

I generally mix my turmeric up with fresh ground chia, pepper, and flax seed and sprinkle it over a boiled sweet potato, often adding a little bit of EVO to turn it into a "paste".  I don't think turmeric tastes bad, but I wouldn't describe it as delicious either, just kind of neutral to me.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Gordo

[Pea]

Haha!  Good point.  I will edit the above to reflect what I used today.

 

Thanks, Gordon.

 

Does black pepper help activate the bio-availability of turmeric? Sounds like it would be a better option than the cayenne. 

 

http://nutritionfacts.org/2015/02/05/why-pepper-boosts-turmeric-blood-levels/

 

-Pea

Edited October 4, 2016 by Pea

[Dean Pomerleau]

Pea,

 

 

Does black pepper help activate the bio-availability of turmeric? Sounds like it would be a better option than the cayenne. 

 

yes - piperine slows the liver's clearance (detoxification) of all kinds of bioactive compounds including curcumin.

 

--Dean

[Mechanism]

Edited

Edited July 20, 2020 by Mechanism

[Thomas G]

It's funny re-reading this old post.

My current strategy is to take about a tablespoon of dried turmeric powder (with some black pepper mixed in) and mix it into about half a cup of water and just drink it.

[Gordo]

A TBSP may be excessive.  I know Dr. G did a video or writeup about turmeric recommendations based on researching studies, you might want to look that up.

[TomBAvoider]

I think Dr. G was talking about 500mg of turmeric. Naturally, there may be some question about the powder as to how much there of the active ingredient, curcumin, what is taken in the diet in f.ex. India. 

[Ron Put]

On 4/12/2020 at 7:54 PM, Gordo said:

A TBSP may be excessive.  I know Dr. G did a video or writeup about turmeric recommendations based on researching studies, you might want to look that up.

I often consume between 4g and 7g in a day, probably about every other day. I have bee taking curcumin for years, between 500 and 1000, usually CurcuWIN® which has much improved bioavailability.

There are few serious curcumin side effects, even at large doses, and I have experienced none so far.

I also consume significant quantities of other spices like black cumin (nigella seed), cumin, paprika, ginger powder, olive leaf powder, garlic powder and cinnamon. Paprika is helpful to me to get sufficient Vitamin E.

[Mechanism]

Edited

Edited July 20, 2020 by Mechanism

[Ron Put]

This may have been posted before, but just in case:

Comparative absorption of curcumin formulations

[Sibiriak]

Comparative absorption of curcumin formulations

Quote

Acknowledgements

Financial support was given by OmniActive Health Technologies, Inc., Morristown, NJ, USA.

OmniActive produces CurcuWIN.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Sibiriak

[Ron Put]

13 hours ago, Sibiriak said:

Comparative absorption of curcumin formulations

OmniActive produces CurcuWIN.

Fair point, I hadn't noticed this.

It doesn't necessarily mean that the results are wrong and as far as I know, the study has not been challenged by any of the competing manufacturers. But it's something to keep in mind.

[Saul]

Arsenic in curcumin is probably organic arsenic -- not the poisonous inorganic, ionic stuff.

  --  Saul

[Mike41]

https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202003.0226/v1 This article indicates Cucurmin may be helpful along with several other compounds

 

 kaempferol, quercetin, luteolin-7-glucoside, demethoxycurcumin, naringenin, apigenin-7-glucoside, oleuropein, curcumin, catechin, and epicatechin-gallate appeared to have the bestpotential to act as COVID-19 M^pro inhibitors

[Sthira]

Nice thing about wearing homemade tie dye is when I spill curry I can’t tell, it’s just part of the overall thing. This happened today

[Matt]

I'd normally add both turmeric and ginger to green tea and then before bed I drink a cup of turmeric tea 🙂

Now I just drink turmeric tea because I prefer having matcha by itself.

[FrederickSebastian]

Thomas--

I'm not sure if I already tried this or if it's just an idea I've had for the longest time, but there is a brand of vegetable/fruit smoothie called "Naked" that sells a variety of mixes you can drink. I've always wanted to (and think I may have actually carried through and done it once or twice) add a teaspoon of ground turmeric to the smoothie. The "Green Machine" smoothie has a LOT of sugars in it (which is why I've stopped drinking it) but something tells me that if you were to make a fruit/vegetable smoothie from scratch and keep track of it on the cronometer, you could have a fruit and vegetable smoothie a few times a week where you can barely taste the turmeric (if you are trying to mask the flavor). 

For some reason, I think that I was having Naked's "Green Machine" fruit and vegetable smoothie with a teaspoon of Morton & Bassett Turmeric and a teaspoon of Marukyu-Koyamen's "Chigi No Shiro" matcha...

Also -- my mother was drinking a shot of apple cider vinegar with a spoonful of turmeric every day for quite a while in the past. I don't know if it was hard to get down, but it's something she swears by for her inflammation (she has arthritis all over)...

Let me know how you make out and what works for you... I'm not on a CR diet yet... I've been on and off throughout the years, but once I get to a weight I'm comfortable with and a diet that works low-cal I'll probably throw in some turmeric in the mornings somehow since I heard it's good for inflammation and inflammation is a HUGE problem in older people... I took an aging class in college when I first became interested in longevity and arthritis and inflammation were a BIG deal, from what I remember...

Best of luck in your dieting and finding a way to ingest the turmeric! :)