Recently, I treated myself to a warm mug of golden milk, a comforting drink with a long history in India.
Golden milk, sometimes called turmeric tea, is steeped with a rich medley of ground spices like turmeric, ginger, and black pepper, and may include a variation of other spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg. The color, the aroma, and the flavor combine for a soothing elixir at the end of a busy day.
The primary ingredient is the turmeric, a pungent spice most often used in traditional cuisine that has gained popularity over the past few decades in Western culture. Yet, I have found there is still some confusion surrounding this herb, so I hope to provide clarity and introduce turmeric to some of you for the first time.
Turmeric is pronounced TER-mer-ick, although I will not correct you if you say too-MARE-ick. It is in the ginger family and its Latin name is Curcuma longa. Knowing the Latin name will help identify it as the consistently studied herb. It is a flowering herb, but its roots are used primarily.
Turmeric is a healthy additive to your diet. It adds a pungent flavor to meals and has been a staple in Indian cuisine for thousands of years.
But if you are looking for therapeutic or medicinal benefits, turmeric as a spice may not be the best source, because it is tumeric’s constituent, curcumin, that provides the potency.
As a supplement, turmeric provides mild anti-inflammatory activity, but it needs the addition of other ingredients to break through to the curcumin within. Black pepper (sometimes shown on supplement labels as piper nigrum, or piperine) is often added for this purpose; however, because black pepper may cause stomach irritation in a percentage of people, some supplement manufacturers have discovered that turmeric also pairs well with fish oil, or bromelain, a digestive enzyme from the core of the pineapple.
Still, while the supplemental turmeric helps with mild inflammation, it only contains about 2-4% of curcumin. For more acute or chronic pain, it is the curcumin extract that one should be looking for to provide relief.
Curcumin is pronounced KER-kyuh-muhn and is non-toxic and safe for most people, providing therapy to those with inflammatory conditions and disorders or disease. Inflammation of the skin, such as eczema, scleroderma or psoriasis, was relieved with curcumin; irritable bowel syndrome and colitis were also reported as being relieved with curcumin therapy, and the list is growing. There are over 8,000 published studies that show the benefits of curcumin for those diagnosed with diabetes, hypothyroidism, arthritis (both osteo and rheumatoid), multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and depression, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosis, bronchitis, asthma, cough and cold, and even some cancers, including breast and prostate.
For a flavorful addition to your diet, turmeric as a spice may provide that unique “oomph†to your dishes or that calm to your evening in a warm, mildly spicy tea, but, for regular, mild inflammation, try turmeric in supplement form. For specific conditions with inflammatory roots, look to curcumin instead.
I leave you with the Golden Milk recipe I made recently that prompted me to reflect on this magnificent spice. I hope you enjoy it, too.
• 2 cups of almond milk (coconut, cashew or other milks may be substituted)
• 1 tbsp of ground turmeric
• 1 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
•  1 tsp ground ginger root
• 1 cardamom pod (crack it open and add a few seeds)
• 1 tbsp of Grade A maple syrup
• Dash of nutmeg
• Pinch of black pepper
Mix ingredients together in a small saucepan and heat for 5 minutes until hot but not boiling.
Turmeric stains fingertips and countertops, so use caution, but a little baking soda and water will help remedy that.
