The next time someone complains about your garlic breath, tell them you’re fighting cancer and keeping your platelets from aggregating. True as these claims may be, though, you probably were just enjoying the flavor of your pizza or Caesar salad, rather than eating garlic to keep your blood from clotting. And that’s the amazing thing about many common herbs and spices in your kitchen: while you’re enjoying their taste and aroma, the herbs are busy stimulating your immune system, strengthening heart health, reducing inflammation, and much more. Featured below are three common herbs with remarkable health benefits.
Turmeric (Curcuma longa). This bright yellow-orange spice comes from the rhizome, or underground stem, of a plant cultivated in the tropics of Asia and Africa. Turmeric, the primary ingredient in curry powder, adds a pungent taste to many Indian dishes, and lends itself well to soups, stews, chicken dishes and rice. Not only is turmeric utilized as a coloring agent for sauces, popcorn, dairy products, cakes and beverages, but it has also traditionally been used to dye fabrics, including the holy robes of Hindu priests.
Turmeric’s main active ingredient is curcumin, a compound with potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which has been studied extensively for 50 years. Researchers at the University of Texas Anderson Cancer Center found that curcumin suppresses tumor cells, in part by regulating factors that control tumor growth and metastasis, and by reducing inflammatory enzymes, including COX-2 enzymes targeted by the controversial drug Vioxx.
The University of Texas has published research showing that curcumin regulates immune cells (including T cells, B cells, macrophages, natural killer cells and neutrophils). At low doses, curcumin can also improve antibody response, which may account for the low rates of Alzheimer’s disease and certain cancers in countries like India and Pakistan, where turmeric is commonly used in cooking. It may also explain why the spice appears to benefit people with arthritis, allergies, asthma and heart disease.
At Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, researchers have found that curcumin may play a therapeutic role in Parkinson’s disease, Irritable Bowel Disease, colitis, colon cancer, psoriasis, pancreatitis and wound healing (by fighting Staph infections). The spice may also help neutralize toxins in secondhand smoke.
Turmeric can be purchased by itself or in curries, which are blends of spices. If you prefer to take a therapeutic dose of turmeric, the herb is considered extremely safe. Dr. Andrew Weil recommends taking 300 mg three times a day for inflammatory conditions.
Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum). From oatmeal to apple pie, cinnamon is one of our most-loved spices. Native to Sri Lanka and southwest India, the tree’s inner bark is ground into powder or rolled into quills, better known as cinnamon sticks.
Cinnamon has traditionally been used for treating digestive ailments, including nausea, vomiting, cramping, diarrhea, gas, and loss of appetite. Among its many active ingredients is cinnamaldehyde, a compound that exhibits antifungal and antibacterial properties (which may be why ancient Egyptians used the spice in the embalming process). Adding a pinch to ground meat before cooking can inhibit food-borne bacteria, including E. coli. Cinnamon can also inhibit the growth of oral bacteria.
Other active ingredients in cinnamon, called proanthocyanidins, appear to increase the sensitivity of insulin receptors. A small, but highly publicized, Pakistani study published in 2003 in Diabetes Care showed that doses ranging from one-quarter to one teaspoon of cinnamon a day lowered fasting blood sugar levels in Type 2 diabetics by 18 to 29 percent after 40 days. The same doses improved cholesterol profiles, lowering triglycerides (23 to 30 percent) and LDL cholesterol (7 to 27 percent.)
Although these results were impressive, other studies have yielded mixed results: some show benefits similar to the Pakistani study while others show no benefit at all. More research is clearly needed. In the meantime, if you want to add cinnamon to your diet, don’t assume that if a little is good for you, a lot must be better. In very high doses, cinnamon may be toxic.
If you are diabetic, consult your doctor before adding daily doses of cinnamon to your diet, as the herb may affect the amount of medication you need. The same goes if you are on statins to lower your cholesterol. Pregnant women should consult their doctor, as some sources, including the ‘Herbal Physicians’ Desk Reference’, recommend avoiding cinnamon if you are pregnant (their ‘daily dose,’ however, is considered a hefty two to four grams; culinary uses are generally considered safe).
Garlic (Allium sativum). James Duke, Ph.D., prior chief of the USDA’s Medicinal Plant Resources Laboratory and author of The Green Pharmacy, calls garlic ‘herbal duct tape,’ due to its broad range of medicinal properties. Hundreds of studies over the last 50 years have documented garlic’s ability to prevent heart disease by lowering LDL cholesterol, raising HDL cholesterol, lowering blood pressure, reducing clotting, and protecting blood vessels from free-radical damage. Garlic also fights bacteria (including H. pylori, the bacteria responsible for ulcers), viruses and fungi.
Garlic contains an odorless compound called alliin. When a garlic clove is cut, enzymes convert alliin to allicin, the compound responsible for garlic’s unmistakable odor as well as most of its health benefits. To gain the most benefit from garlic, ‘give it a rest’ before cooking. Research shows that cutting garlic and letting it sit for ten minutes before cooking allows the enzymes to form beneficial allicin.
Researchers in Italy found that people with the highest consumption of garlic and onion had the lowest risk of several cancers, including prostate, breast, ovarian, colorectal, liver cell, laryngeal and esophageal cancer. Onion is in the same botanical genus as garlic and confers many of the same health benefits.
The same researchers recently published a study linking frequent consumption of garlic and onion with a reduced risk of prostate enlargement, or BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia).
The aromatic compounds in garlic are excreted primarily though the lungs and, to a lesser extent, by perspiration. If you notice, after eating a Caesar salad, that people are giving you a particularly wide berth, you may want to chew a sprig of mint, thyme, parsley or basil. Or jump in the tub: taking a hot bath reportedly helps to speed the release of aromatic compounds through the skin.
Keep Your Spices Fresh (and Potent)
Store spices in airtight glass jars, away from light, heat and humidity (in other words, away from the stovetop). Store garlic bulbs in a cool, dry place – not the fridge.
If stored properly, ground spices will stay fresh for 6 to 12 months, and dried leaf herbs for 12 to 18 months. Herbs and spices don’t really spoil, but can lose their flavor and medicinal properties. Discard spices that have lost their aroma, flavor or color. Whole spices, such as cinnamon sticks and peppercorns, can last up to three years. Grind them as needed, using a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle.
To keep moisture out of spice jars, don’t shake them directly over a steaming pot.
