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| Thursday, February 18, 2010 |
| Turmeric for Weight Loss |
My spice of choice is back in the news and again, adding to its numerous beneficial health effects. In fact, its benefits come from curcumin, the active component in turmeric.
I previously wrote about curcumin’s anti-inflammatory properties, its ability to slow the spread of cancer, its ability to slow the oxidative process involved in Alzheimer’s disease and also its ability to reduce size of a hemorrhagic stroke. This time curcumin may suppress fat tissue growth. In a similar way as cancer grows its own blood vessels, so does fat. In order to grow, fat tissue and tumors need a blood supply so they build their own. It seems very simple and logic.
The research involved feeding two groups of mice a high fat diet containing the same amount of food for 12 weeks. One group received curcumin and the other didn’t. At the end of the study the group who received curcumin didn’t gain as much weight as the non-supplemented group. “Curcumin appeared to be responsible for total lower body fat in the group that received supplementation,” said Meydani, who is also a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts. “In those mice, we observed a suppression of microvessel density in fat tissue, a sign of less blood vessel growth and thus less expansion of fat. We also found lower blood cholesterol levels and fat in the liver of those mice. In general, angiogenesis and an accumulation of lipids in fat cells contribute to fat tissue growth.”
As always, researchers don’t know if they can expect similar results in humans and more work needs to be done to explore this relationship. But what I know for sure is that I will continue to add turmeric to everything I eat because it’s good for me. But like we always say, more doesn’t always mean its better. So, I will not take capsules or supplements but simply include turmeric in my daily diet. I add turmeric to soups, rice, noodles, beans, salad dressing, when I cook fish, chicken and even more when I make curries and lentils. Please check out my wonderful chicken curry salad. Once you try it it’s hard to eat plain chicken salad again.
Peace and love,
- Josée
For more information on turmeric click here and here.
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Sensei Talks: Turmeric to Decrease Risk of Heart Disease
Labels: Josee, Spices, Weight Loss
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posted by My Sensei @ Thursday, February 18, 2010   |
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I love the curry flavor so always good to hear this but like you, on food for now.
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I love the curry flavor so always good to hear this but like you, on food for now.