Be Smart When Cooking with Turmeric
By Cornelia Carlson, Ph.D.
July/August 2000
More than any other spice, turmeric marries health benefits to zesty taste. Numerous recent scientific studies—not to mention millennia of experience—suggest the breadth of turmeric’s therapeutic potential, while its flavoring potential is equally broad for adding clean, camphorous, and peppery notes to myriad savory dishes.
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The most exciting research indicates that this brilliant yellow spice may inhibit several types of cancers (see “Turmeric’s health benefits” on page 63). Other data show that it inhibits inflammation, ulcers, gallstones, and the growth of various microbes. It may also aid wound healing, muscle regeneration, and the cardiovascular system as well as modestly decrease total cholesterol while increasing HDL cholesterol.
The main medicinal components in turmeric are antioxidant molecules called curcuminoids. But cooking easily destroys these fragile molecules. The recipes below are designed to retain the best of both the taste and health benefits of this spice. Here are a few of many possible dishes in which turmeric gives a flavorful, health-promoting lift to already nutritious foods.
Recipes Made with Turmeric:
In the Kitchen
A fat-soluble molecule, curcumin constitutes roughly 1 to 6 percent of turmeric’s dry weight. Curcumin is extremely sensitive to light, moisture, and heat. Roughly 85 percent is destroyed when turmeric is boiled for 15 to 30 minutes. Furthermore, it degrades rapidly (within 30 minutes or so) at a neutral pH. The rate of destruction increases sharply as the pH increases (becomes more alkaline). In laboratory situations, some proteins stabilize curcumin. Whether the same happens in the kitchen with proteins such as the albumin in milk has yet to be determined.
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