I Hopped on the Turmeric Trend and Here Is Why!

I usually march to the beat of my own drummer in most cases. For whatever reason, I chose to hop on the bandwagon when it comes the use of turmeric as a supplement in my daily diet.

I had seen it a lot on Pinterest. Tons of recipes and pictures for “golden milk” and “golden tea”.” At first, I thought it seemed ridiculous, but now I find myself consuming turmeric on a daily basis.

For this post, I will go into why I decided to hop on the turmeric train and how I have been taking it.

Why I chose to add in turmeric to my diet

I have always liked spices and seasoning in my food. Turmeric isn’t one of my favorites, but I do like it in certain things.

I wasn’t exactly sure what was so great about it health-wise, so I decided to look into it more. First came the research articles on turmeric. I will summarize key points from them below:

*Contains curcumin which is a polyphenol.

*Used for a very long time in cooking and for medicinal purposes.

* Has immune system boosting benefits

*Has anti-inflammatory benefits.

*Shown to be more effective than placebo at decreasing bad cholesterol.

*Needs to be combined with black pepper in order to increase the absorption of it.

*High doses can cause GI upset.

*The benefits will be there when consumed in food for long periods of time.

*As with any supplement/herb/spice, there needs to be more studies done (and it would be nice if they really would do more studies on these things!)

Second came the anecdotal evidence. There are tons of positive reviews on supplementing with turmeric. The good results that people have had, persuaded me to start consuming it too.

How I take turmeric daily

I consume turmeric in the form of what I call, a “hot toddy,” twice a day.  It is not exactly like a real hot toddy though.

A real hot toddy is a drink that has been around for many years. Drinking them was supposed to treat colds and coughs. They usually contain alcohol (rum, bourbon or whiskey), lemon, honey, cloves and cinnamon.

There is no hardcore scientific evidence that hot toddies help with colds/flus, but they do provide warmth which can be of comfort when you are sick.

My version of a hot toddy includes turmeric powder, ginger powder, black pepper, apple cider vinegar, honey and sucralose (don’t judge me on that). The reasonings I have behind putting each of these ingredients in my toddy are as follows:

1. Turmeric: Immune system boost.
2. Ginger: Immune system boost.
3. Black pepper: Need it with the turmeric.
4. Honey: Has some soothing properties.
5. Apple cider vinegar: May have some benefits. Also, I do like the flavor of it (is that weird?).
6. Sucralose: Makes the drink taste less like trash.

My “hot toddy” recipe

Here it is if you are interested in making it!

What you will need:

You don’t have to have organic versions of these ingredients. These are just what I happen to have on hand since I started making the drink. Feel free to add in other things to your liking!

The measurements and what you will do:

1/2 tsp (or more if you want) of turmeric powder

½ tsp (or more if you want) of ginger powder

A couple shakes of black pepper

1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp of honey

Extra sweetener (if you need/want it)

6-8 ounces of hot water

All you do is mix these things together in a mug and then drink it! Like stated before, I drink two of these a day (one without honey in it). You could drink less or more than me. Whatever you want!

This pandemic is crazy

I, like many other people, never imagined something like this virus situation would occur. Since it happened, I have been trying to make sure I am as healthy as possible.

Even though the scientific evidence behind turmeric boosting the immune system isn’t strong, I will still be consuming it along with other things just in case.

Do you like turmeric? Let me know what you think about the drink if you do indeed or have tried something like it before!

Thanks for reading!

Some sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6205834/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664031/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92752/

#turmeric   #immunesystem  #covid19  #stayathome  #health  #goldendrink