Spices provide an easy and tasty way to punch up your food's nutritional values and flavor profiles.
Here are five seasonings we love using at Dine In 2Nite:
Curcumin (found in turmeric)
Ginger
Garlic
Cayenne pepper
Onions
These taste enhancers are especially helpful in protecting your heart and blood pressure, as well as your overall health.Curcumin
You may not have heard of curcumin before, but you probably have heard of turmeric, the spice that is best known as an ingredient in Indian curry and yellow mustard. Turmeric has been my number one cardiovascular spice for years, and its yellow color comes from curcumin—a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound that's been found to combat tumors and reduce the excess platelet aggregation that occurs in sticky, clot-forming blood. Curcumin also helps keep NF-kappa B, a protein complex involved in the body's inflammatory reactions, in check. Elevated NF-kappa B production has been linked to cancer as well as inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.Curcumin has an impressive list of positive research findings. In fact, two intriguing animal studies from the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggest that curcumin may offer a good deal more cardiovascular protection than previously thought. In one study, researchers at the University of Toronto found that curcumin blocks a wide range of biochemical reactions involved in cardiac hypertrophy (enlargement of the heart chambers), inflammation, and fibrosis. These are undesirable developments associated with heart failure. In another study, investigators at Japan's Kyoto Medical Center found that curcumin helps support healthy blood pressure in addition to preventing cardiac hypertrophy. They concluded that curcumin "may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for heart failure in humans."
Ginger
Ginger is sometimes called the smart man's aspirin. It's a potent blood thinner and anti-inflammatory agent, and it's the main reason I drink ginger tea on a regular basis.Ginger is also a handy natural anti-emetic agent, which means it's good for dealing with nausea. I used to always bring it along when my kids were younger and we went fishing out on the ocean, as it's great for motion sickness. I'd just cut up pieces of fresh ginger root and boil them. The boys would drink down the brew and keep seasickness at bay.
Clinically, ginger is a great aide for treating the nausea that accompanies certain types of heart attacks—usually those involving the back wall of the left ventricle (the part of the heart that is fed by the right coronary artery). During a heart attack, the weakened heart struggles to maintain blood pressure. Stress hormones spike, and patients experience dread, anxiety, and fear—all of which stirs up severe nausea in about half the cases. Some doctors routinely prescribe ginger tea when trying to treat nausea. Patients who are administered codeine or morphine can also develop nausea. Ginger tea generally helps in those cases as well.
Garlic
Like ginger, garlic is an excellent natural blood thinner. Garlic is also a fabulous anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial agent with a long history in folk medicine. Twenty-five hundred years ago, Hippocrates recommended garlic for infections, wounds, cancer, leprosy, and digestive disorders. During World Wars I and II, Russian army physicians frequently used garlic to control infection, pus, and gastrointestinal disorders. The success they had gave rise to garlic's nickname as “Russian Penicillin.”Garlic is powerful medicine indeed. It is also considered useful (either by eating a lot of it or taking 1,000 mg a day) to fight Lyme disease.
This seasoning also has a favorable effect on blood pressure. A recent Australian review of 11 studies in which hypertensive patients were randomly given garlic or placebo found that garlic can lower blood pressure as effectively as some drugs. On average, the mega-analysis turned up blood pressure reductions of 8.4 systolic points, and 7.3 diastolic points. The higher a patient's blood pressure was at the beginning, the more it was lowered by taking garlic. Reducing blood pressure on this scale can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and heart disease-related death. Dosages taken by the subjects in the studies ranged from 600 to 900 mg over a period of three to six months.
Garlic is also a great vehicle for adding sulfur to the diet, an important and largely ignored mineral. Sulfur provides an essential raw material for muscle and connective tissue, enzymes that conduct countless chemical reactions, and compounds that protect us against toxicity and harmful oxidative stress.
Cayenne Pepper
Either as a powder or in its whole form, cayenne pepper is widely used to sharpen the taste of dishes (such as in Szechuan cuisine). However, it has also long been used as an herbal medication.It can be ingested for relief from stomach aches and gas, and cayenne powder can be mixed with water and then gargled to combat sore throats. It can also be rubbed on the skin for temporary relief of arthritic pain or muscle aches.
The key compound in cayenne pepper is a pungent substance called capsaicin, which is the main active ingredient in a number of over-the-counter "hot creams" for joint and muscle pain. Capsaicin creates the sensation of heat through a thermogenic effect that raises body temperature and boosts circulation in the area where it's applied. Taken orally, it may help to burn calories and contribute to weight loss.
Over the years, patients have told me that capsaicin, available as a supplement, has helped alleviate angina and improve heart failure. I don't know the precise reason why, but I suspect it has vasodilating properties, which explains why it increases circulation (and temperature) wherever it's applied. It's also an antioxidant that is known to reduce lipid oxidation and decrease platelet stickiness.
Cayenne is a guaranteed winner to add to any recipe that needs a spicy pick-me-up. Just don't overdo it. Too much cayenne may be harmful to DNA.
Onions
Because they're in the same family as garlic, it's no surprise that onions have similar effects. They promote the dissolving of blood clots and also help normalize blood pressure. They're packed with sulfur and quercetin, two important flavonoid compounds. The researchers suggested that quercetin may be worthwhile for people whose blood pressure is influenced by their salt intake.Like cayenne, onions also have a thermogenic effect. And, while there aren't any studies to support it, that thermogenic effect may be why some patients have told me that eating a lot of salads with raw onions have helped them lose weight.
